Clean Water Groups Collaborate To Shape the “Utility of the Future”

The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF), and the Water Environment Federation (WEF) have jointly released a pioneering document that defines the evolving environmental, economic, and social roles that clean water utilities are playing in their communities. As outlined in Water Resources Utility of the Future . . [...]

The Rise and Fall of Salmon

The Elwha River, in Washington state, has been making a slow recovery since the removal of a dam in 2011, but stormwater runoff is endangering salmon. The river’s dam, built for power production, had stalled fish spawning and reduced sediment flow. Since its removal, sandbars have begun to form at the mouth of the river, [...]

EPA Administrator Jackson Stepping Down

On December 27, 2013, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced she would resign in January 2013 after the President’s State of the Union Address. It’s common for an EPA Administrator to step down after serving a full 4 year term of a President (which is the case for Jackson, who was nominated and confirmed very early [...]

National Design Competition – Infill Philadelphia: Soak It Up!

The Philadelphia Water Department, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Community Design Collaborative have launched a national design competition to promote the creative, innovative use of green stormwater infrastructure in Philadelphia and other cities. The design competition is part of Infill Philadelphia: Soak it Up!—a design initiative exploring how green stormwater infrastructure can revitalize urban neighborhoods. [...]

Hippie Infrastructure

The greening of gray and the softening of hard has come a long way in the last 40 years, but this “nature-based,” green infrastructure movement still has a ways to go.  It got a boost, though, in September in Washington DC and it’s going to get another big bump in October in Cincinnati Ohio. In [...]

White House CEQ to Host Green Infrastructure Conference

The White House’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are hosting a day-long conference at the White House on September 20, 2012, invitation-only. This conference will explore ways to widely implement green infrastructure practices in general, but will focus heavily on practices of municipal stormwater solutions. Several of the [...]

A Twenty-First Century U.S. Water Policy

Peter Gleick and his colleagues at the Pacific Institute  last week published an important new book, A Twenty-First Century U.S. Water Policy, calling for more sustainable and integrated approaches to water management in the U.S. The Pacific Institute, a 2011 winner of the U.S. Water Prize, describes the overall need for “soft path water solutions”.  Specific [...]

EPA & Stormwater: Giving it the “College Try”

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced, a design competition, the Campus RainWorks Challenge, for university students to promote and discover innovative stormwater management solutions. With a faculty adviser, undergraduate and graduate students will work together as a team to incorporate green infrastructure principles into their proposed designs for campus improvement. Key factors for judging [...]

The Conservation Fund – Pilot Course for Green Infrastructure

The Conservation Fund is offering a pilot course that will provides participants with applications and techniques for the implementation of Green Infrastructure at multiple scales. Building off of The Conservation Fund’s Strategic Conservation Planning Using a Green Infrastructure Approach Course, this offering will examine the next steps for on-the-ground implementation of green infrastructure focusing on [...]

New NRDC Report – Financing Stormwater Retrofits in Philadelphia and Beyond

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently released a new report on how local and state governments can stimulate private investment, to offset the costs of retrofitting our nation’s stormwater infrastructure, which today typically consists of traditional gray infrastructure: pipes, concrete and pavement. The report lauds the Philadelphia Water Department’s Green City, Clean Waters plan [...]