“The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), working with states and local governments, will develop guidance, provide technical assistance, and target federal SRF capitalization assistance to support increasing the sustainability of water infrastructure in the U.S. and the communities it serves.”
So begins the new incarnation of the Clean Water and Drinking Water Infrastructure Sustainability Policy, recently announced in news release by the EPA.
While the policy isn’t completely new, there are new elements that will affect those that help with training and management, those that deal with state grants and loans and those that run water and wastewater systems.
Because the EPA wants to assist water systems and those that help them, they’re looking for input from several fronts in order to shape this new policy.
So what does it mean for water and wastewater systems? What about those who work with such systems?
In this edition of eBulletin, we’ll provide the nuts and bolts of this sustainability policy, cover what’s new and talk about what water systems and those that work with them can expect for the future.
The Policy
A sustainability policy isn’t new for the EPA. In fact, the EPA has worked for years with state agencies and nonprofit groups like the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) to help provide water and wastewater systems with the tools needed to improve capacity development and sustainability.
The new policy covers current ways and new ideas to do that. A link to the policy is available below.
The first phase of the policy is to promote planning processes that support sustainability. The policy outlines what should be considered during a water or wastewater system’s building or upgrade planning process:
- How will it affect the public’s health?
- How will it affect water quality?
- Will the new system or upgrade be affected by climate change, such as droughts or floods?
- What level of service will be provided?
- How will the new project conserve or encourage the conservation of natural resources?
- Are there any alternative or “green” approaches to building or upgrading the system?
- Are there any decentralized solutions?
- Are there any more modern or innovative approaches that can be used?
- What will the full life cost be on investments in the current infrastructure or in building new infrastructure?
The policy hopes to guide systems in looking not just at the short-term problem but at the long-term, big-picture result.
The policy doesn’t just encourage systems to look at the big picture. It does the same for state regulators and lenders and those who want to help water and wastewater systems in whatever ways they can. The policy encourages agencies to teach systems about capacity development and provide ways to finance changes in the systems that will encourage sustainability. To that end, the policy requests that agencies states examine their lending, training and other practices to see what can be improved to make it easier on water and wastewater systems to get the help they need.
Finally, the EPA wants to work with agencies and utilities to create the best ways possible to report results and track information. That way, changes can be made to tweak the system and streamline it even more.
What’s the best way for states to report on their State Revolving Fund (SRF) lending programs? How effective are capacity development programs? Do systems need more or less training to achieve sustainability? The EPA hopes to find these answers.
Additional Resources
EPA Clean Water and Drinking Water Infrastructure Sustainability Policy
http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/sustain/Clean-Water-and-Drinking-Water-Infrastructure-Sustainability-Policy.cfm [1]
The Changes
The policy may seem familiar, but there are changes mentioned in the new version and on the horizon.
Jim Horne of the Office of Wastewater Management discussed some of those changes.
The first mention comes under the Implementation Activities.
The EPA is developing “guidance” for utilities to make the planning process for new projects all-inclusive, covering not only how the project will affect the water system in the future, but how it will affect the community as a whole. The planning also should consider alternatives and “green” enhancement for more environmentally friendly and efficient results. Systems also need to consider how sustainable new projects will be themselves and within the community.
To do all this, Horne said, the EPA has its guidance under development. They call it “guidance” because they don’t expect it to be a set-in-stone regulation, rather suggestions and steps for systems to make the job easier.
The policy guidance currently is being developed by state agencies and several utilities, including a few small water utilities, Horne said. He expects a draft to be done sometime around the end of the year, and it will go out for review by other systems sometime next year before being implemented.
“The idea is to get as much input as possible,” he said.
Another change deals with the State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs. While this program has been helpful to water and wastewater systems so far, the idea in the new policy is to figure out ways to make the lending programs better tailored to those that need the funds. To do this, the EPA is working with three states in a pilot program that will examine the process and suggest changes. The EPA wants to know what changes can be made to the SRFs that will promote sustainability better by making it easier for systems to build long-term-sustainable systems. What should take priority? Are all the requirements of the current application needed? Should requirements be added or subtracted? Is there a better way to streamline the lending system?
New York, Maryland and California currently are taking part in the pilot program. Horne said they’re hoping to hear some results from New York and Maryland in early 2011 and from California later in the year.
From there, a “Best Practices Guide” will be created based on what is learned from the pilot program. The guide is intended to share the information with other states so they may better promote sustainability among their systems. The guide has a tentative expected date of late 2011 or early 2012.
What about those who help support water and wastewater systems, such as the Rural Community Assistance Partnership? What changes will be made so they can help systems even more?
First, the EPA is looking at capacity development programs to see what works and what doesn’t and if any improvements can be made. Again, the EPA is working with several state agencies and regional representatives to get this done, Horne said.
The EPA also plans to offer proposals for funding under cooperative agreements to hold workshops for small utilities. The proposals are expected to go out within the next couple of months for agencies interested in holding the workshops.
The workshops will be designed to help water and wastewater systems better understand the sustainability initiative. It also will give the EPA, the state agencies and the assistance providers a chance to better reach out to water and wastewater systems.
Communication isn’t always easy, especially in rural areas. It’s hoped that such workshops can help get the word out to water and wastewater systems on how best to build and maintain their systems for the future.
It sounds like a lot to study, and changes could be coming in the next couple of years. But the EPA plans to include as many entities as possible and do all it can to help both water and wastewater systems and those that assist them with lending, capacity development and other aspects.
“This is going to be a long, unfolding process, this is not going to happen overnight,” he said. “We’re wanting to do this through a cooperative process, and that’s going to take time.
“But this is not something we want to shove down anyone’s throats,” he said.” This is something where we want full input from everyone.”
It will take time, but the EPA hopes these changes will make it easier for water and wastewater systems of all sizes and locations to increase their sustainability and provide the best products possible to their customers for years to come.