Volume 1 Issue 4 - May 2010

 

Alliance News & Activities

Inaugural Business Advisory Council Launch a Success!

On April 14, 2010 the Clean Water America Alliance hosted its inaugural meeting of the newly established Business Advisory Council (BAC) in Washington, D.C. The Honorable Sherwood L. Boehlert, former Chair of the U.S. House of Representatives' Science and Technology Committee and the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee served as the honorary chair of the meeting and engaged over 45 guests who attended in person and via conference call-in.

Attendees discussed the role of the Council in guiding the Alliance Board of Directors and priority areas members are interested in exploring. Specific BAC priority areas participants identified at the meeting included:

• Collaborating with key stakeholder groups, such as agriculture, energy, public utilities and conservation.
• Facilitating a paradigm shift to guide and encourage technology innovation and better resource management practices.
• Working across the board on policy to drive real progress in improving water quality and quantity.
• Working with regulators to meet clean water goals and fund federal and local level projects.
• Establishing private-public partnerships to achieve water sustainability goals which will benefit businesses and strengthen the economic foundation of the nation.

Many participants expressed their excitement in the BAC’s potential in guiding the development of an integrated roadmap that will allow the nation to effectively deploy water as a limited resource.

The Alliance believes it is critical to have all clean water stakeholders at the table and the BAC provides an opportunity for the private sector to participate in this important dialogue. The Alliance plans on hosting future BAC meetings quarterly, with the next meeting scheduled for mid-June. If you are interested in attending or would like to learn more please contact Lisa Baranello at lbaranello@cleanwateramericaalliance.org or Eli Weissman at eweissman@cleanwateramericaalliance.org.
 

Alliance Board Members Participate in EPA’s Coming Together For Clean Water

Ken Kirk, Alliance President, and Alliance Board Members Carol Collier, Alex Dunn, Tracy Mehan, Howard Neukrug, and Neil Weinstein participated in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Coming Together for Clean Water conference in Washington, D.C. on April 15, 2010. The one day conference, which mirrored the Alliance’s National Dialogues, brought together 125 water leaders and experts to discuss how to increase the nation’s progress in meeting its clean water goals. The meeting was the brainchild of current EPA Administrator, Lisa Jackson, who kicked the day off by challenging the group to contribute their ideas and help EPA refocus its clean water efforts.

EPA focused discussions within two thematic areas: Healthy Watersheds and Sustainable Communities; both of which represent critical priorities for the Administration, EPA and the Alliance. The conference’s breakout sessions resulted in robust discussions about green infrastructure, energy use, watershed approaches and decentralized approaches to achieving clean water goals.

Bob Perciasepe, EPA Deputy Administrator and former Alliance Board Member, summarized the conference’s discussions with his closing remarks, which included the following points:

• Much has been accomplished under the Clean Water Act (CWA), but we’re collectively “treading water” to a certain extent – we need to build on the gains we’ve achieved thus far and do more to realize the goals of the Act. A big “step forward” is needed at this stage.
• We need to look at the various aspects of CWA implementation in an integrated, holistic way. We can’t solve one problem at the expense of another.
• Framing our strategies and solutions in the context of watershed and place-based approaches offer the best opportunity for breaking out of silos and achieving truly integrated solutions.
• Everything we do needs to be transparent and communicated clearly to interested stakeholders and the general public.

EPA is currently drafting a summary report of the conference’s discussions and will publish it later this year. The agency also indicated it plans to roll out a framework for action that builds on the various ideas offered at the summit this summer. The Alliance plans to work closely with the EPA to advance our shared goal of national water sustainability.

Alliance Support Continues to Grow

The Alliance welcomed five new Founders during the month of April: Brown & Caldwell; Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans; JEA (Electric, Water & Sewer); Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati; and Metro Wastewater Reclamation District. These commitments demonstrate the strength of our mission and the importance of the issues we are undertaking.

The Alliance's Founders are critical to our success and are dedicated to supporting the exploration and analysis of important clean water issues, providing meaningful information to citizens and policy-makers.

Please join these sector leaders by becoming a Founder of the Alliance. Founder Campaign contribution levels have been established at $20,000 for corporate entities and $10,000 for public/nonprofit organizations. Becoming a Founder is as easy as completing and returning this form. The campaign runs until the end of December 2010, so there is still time to take your seat at the table!

For additional information on becoming a Founder, download our brochure or contact Lisa Baranello at 202.533.1834 or by e-mail at lbaranello@cleanwateramericaalliance.org.

 

Clean Water News

U.S. Rum Industry: Setting New Standards for Environmental Protection

The U.S. Virgin Islands’ government and Cruzan Rum, owned by the newest Alliance partner, Fortune Brands, have come together to form a public-private partnership to help set a new U.S. rum industry standard for environmental protection with the construction of a new Cruzan Rum wastewater treatment system. The new facility, on the island of St. Croix, comes as part of the U.S. Virgin Islands government’s 30-year partnerships with its rum makers to modernize the industry and set new standards for sustainable rum production.

The state-of-the-art Cruzan Rum wastewater treatment plant will prevent the release of 150,000 pounds oxygen-demanding organic material, which impairs water quality, into the ocean and will cut fresh water consumption by almost 40 percent per proof gallon of rum produced. A new fermentation and distillation process will use advanced scrubber technology to recover ethanol, lowering emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by more than 90 percent. Mechanical vapor recompression will evaporate excess water, recycle that vapor, compress it and reuse the water, increasing energy efficiency. U.S. Virgin Islands Governor John P. deJongh, Jr. noted that through “the implementation of this modern production and filtration system we will finally see an end to the brown stain in the waters off of St. Croix.”

The Virgin Islands government and Fortune Brands recognize the mutual benefits of collaborating to grow the Cruzan Rum brand; secure environmental and production benefits and significantly increase local government revenue that can be reinvested in economic development. The Alliance promotes these types of partnerships that achieve both environmental and economic benefits for local communities.
 

Guest Article: Water and Energy – Inseparable Issues

(Written by Dr. Allan R. Hoffman: Senior Analyst, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy)

Water is mankind’s most precious resource. There are no substitutes and the struggle to control water resources has shaped human history. “The human right to water is indispensable for leading a healthy life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite to the realization of all other human rights” (UN, 2002).

Water security is a growing global crisis. Many parts of the developing world already face significant water shortages, with serious implications for health and poverty reduction, and in coming years the problem will become more widespread.

Complicating this crisis is the linkage between water and energy. Energy is needed to lift water from underground aquifers, transport water through canals and pipes, manage and treat impaired water for reuse, and desalinate brackish and sea water to provide new fresh water supplies. In addition, many forms of energy production depend on the availability of water — hydroelectricity, cooling of thermal power plants, processing of crude oil, tar sands and oil shales, growing of biomass, coal slurries, carbon capture and sequestration, and water as a source of hydrogen in a hydrogen economy.

Indirect linkages include the contamination of surface and underground water supplies associated with energy production and use, impacts on precipitation patterns of global climate change associated with the combustion of fossil fuels, and if competing water uses limit use of waterways for transport of goods, rail and truck will require more energy to move those goods.

Water and energy are linked in yet another way. Neither water nor energy, in absolute terms, are in short supply in the world. What is in short supply is water and energy that people can afford to buy.

Energy policy and water policy can also be expressed in similar terms. If one recognizes that energy is a means to an end and not an end in itself – i.e., energy is important only as it allows us to provide the services that are important to human welfare (heating, cooling, illumination, communication, etc.) - it follows that energy security rests on using the least amount of energy to provide a given service as well as access to technologies providing a diverse supply of reliable, affordable and environmentally benign energy sources. The first priority of energy policy must then be the wise, efficient use of whatever energy supplies are available. Exactly the same is true of water. Only after ensuring the wise, efficient use of existing resources must we focus on harvesting new energy and water supplies that meet sustainability requirements.

The bottom line is that water and energy issues are inextricably linked. No longer can U.S. and global water security be guaranteed without careful attention to related energy issues, and no longer can energy security be guaranteed without attention to related water issues. The linkage between the two is clear and must be explicitly recognized and acted upon.
 

Confirmed: BPA in Water Now

In the last issue of NewsWaves, the article “Bottled Water: On Its Way Out?”, highlighted the growing concern of plastics potentially leaching harmful BPAs into the water. Recently, at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, it was confirmed that plastics have been biodegrading in the environment, resulting in the leaching of significant levels of BPA into the water.

BPA, which stands for Bisphenol-A, is a known endocrine disrupter and has been linked to a variety of health problems in humans and wildlife. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that more than 1 million pounds of BPA are released into the environment each year and is considering designating it a “chemical of concern” due to its potential harm to human and environmental health. The EPA has made a commitment to begin measuring BPA present in surface, drinking and ground water. Additionally, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, is conducting a variety of BPA research over the next two years, focusing on health effects from exposures to low doses of BPA.
 

Reducing Your Water Footprint With Your Phone!

New cell-phone technologies are making it easier to keep track of individual daily water consumption in order to encourage conservation and reduce personal water footprints. Two iPhone applications, My Water Diary and The Meter Reader, make it easy for individuals to conserve water and save money.

The My Water Diary application allows users to easily track individual water consumption patterns by activity, such as showering or washing dishes, to calculate total water use. The tool will calculate and chart daily/weekly statistics, and is a great way to pinpoint the greatest sources of personal water use for personal conservation.

The Meter Readings application is a comprehensive tool to track your household energy and water use. By entering household utility meter readings, along with the rates from your utility provider, the application calculates your usage, costs and savings over time. The application includes the ability to graph utility usage or cost per day, week, month and quarter to analyze trends in consumption and the associated cost of utilities.