What Are The 3 Biggest U.S. Water Challenges?

By Kevin Westerling,
@KevinOnWater

Social media discussions can be hit or miss, but a recent one in particular caught my eye with the question: “What do you believe are the three biggest water challenges in the U.S.?”

I wasn’t alone in my interest. The informal survey drew 70 comments and counting from the American Water Works Association LinkedIn group to whom it was addressed (a drinking water-centric audience, it should be noted).

I sifted through the entire conversation to extract the most popular answers. Most of the responses were thoughtful and informative, with just a single politically-charged rant. (Isn’t there always one?) The contributors ranged from top level management to maintenance personnel, from university researchers to field technicians — all with different takes, and they weren’t shy about sharing them.

And The Winners Are…

To my surprise, the challenge most often cited wasn’t aging infrastructure, funding, or regulations — my assumed big three — although they all received multiple mentions (infrastructure was the runner-up). The dark horse that came in first, and seems to be gaining momentum, is education.

There is plenty of logic supporting this response. Start with the premise that any water challenge named could be solved with an influx of money. With 95% of water and sewer infrastructure development, rehabilitation, and operating costs paid by local governments, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, much of the onus for funding these projects falls on local taxpayers. As it stands, we are asking the taxpayer to foot the bill for something they perceive as a right, and so education is needed to change this perception.

I couldn’t state it better than the survey respondents themselves, who did well to educate me in this exercise. Read on for the AWWA group’s take on the three biggest challenges facing the water industry — in their words, selectively included for demonstrating insight and, in some cases, potential solutions.

1.) Public Education

 “In many ways we are victims of our own success.  People have grown used to the fact that water is abundant, cheap, and safe. Open the tap and here it comes, flush the toilet and there it goes, without a thought as to what is involved to produce, treat, and distribute potable water, as well as to collect, treat, and discharge the water. Perhaps where we have failed is in educating the public.”
– Cary Hillebrand, Regional Manager, North America at Peak-Dynamics Ltd. and Regional Director at Rentricity Inc.

“We are not ‘squeaky wheels’ and we don’t market our product at all. Yet the bottled water industry does, power companies do, cellphone companies do. All seem to have greater acceptance for paying more than do customers for water and sewer. Our public is uneducated, and we have been out-marketed for scarce dollars for 40 years. If you demonstrate how water-plus-sewer costs for the average user is less than cable plus one premium channel (virtually always the case), the objections to water rate increases tend to subside. Even the public can't make the argument that it’s okay to pay more for cable TV than water and sewer. I've done this a number of times and it ALWAYS WORKS.”
– Fred Bloetscher, President, Public Utility Management and Planning Services, Inc.

“In order to start moving forward, we need to remember the definition of insanity — continuing to do the same thing while expecting different results. We need to get over the silly idea that public education will, or even can, begin with our politicians. The only thing that moves them is obtaining votes for the next election. We need to start, and continue indefinitely (we humans are a forgetful lot), an effective public services announcement campaign on all the most popular media. Does anyone besides me remember the weeping Native American from the '70s?”
– Ken Ferry, Municipal Water, Sewer, and Stormwater Engineer

2.) Infrastructure Improvements

“We have an enormous technical debt built up in our aging infrastructure. Cities are sitting on crumbling systems that have suffered from lack of adequate funding to consistently maintain and upgrade. Advances in metering and system monitoring technology can help us to pinpoint and predict failures and prioritize those, but… the IT infrastructure is in a similar state and, in many cases, is nowhere near ready for an upgrade to modern utility automation technology. We're in a recession, and what are we supposed to do in a recession cycle? That's right, build infrastructure — we learned that in Economics 101. We will not see money this cheap again for some time, if ever, and we have a labor force ready to get to work and start paying taxes.”
– Tim Patterson, President, Amethyst Data

“Imagine being able to communicate aging infrastructure problems with GIS maps showing how many times a single pipe has been repaired, and how it is undersized to meet demand through pressure complaints. Imagine being able to show basement surcharging due to failed wastewater pipe systems and sewers with excessive I/I [inflow and infiltration]. Then overlay these problems with a prioritized series of system upgrades showing their impacts upon rates and property values. How often is this possible in the existing utility environment? Do cities facing bankruptcy offer opportunities to utilities separate from them to achieve these goals? Could this separation of utilities create a revenue source for the failing city? Could this be a win-win opportunity for both?”
– Barry Walkenshaw, Water/Wastewater/Stormwater Project Manager, Ohio Water Environment Association

3.) Water Scarcity/Management

“Due to climate change, our aquifers are drying up, the snowpack is getting less and less, and the seas are getting higher. All of these things should be forcing us to step back and really start to plan, or we are just going to be blindly fighting fires, with no long-term options left.”
– George Terry, Sr. Advisor to the president and CEO at Ontario Clean Water Agency

“Growing population vs. less potable water supplies equals a severe problem. The mindset of consumers must be changed from ‘It is my right to use as much as I like’ (and I have actually heard those words) to ‘Every drop counts.’ Conservation is the quickest way we can gain water supplies. With a combination of conservation and better ways to treat dirty water, we can make our supplies last longer. Easier said than done, I know.”
– Pat Riley, Public Works Director, City of Levelland, TX

There were a multitude of entries suggesting that reuse is the “new” water, and that it needs to be widely adopted — if the public can overcome its phobia — in order to conquer water scarcity. After all, there really is no end to the water cycle. As one poster put it: urination, evaporation, condensation, rain… rinse, repeat.

Message boards: Always colorful, sometimes enlightening.

Of course, the quality of conversation is directly related to the nature of the participants, and I gratefully acknowledge the AWWA group on LinkedIn for its (mostly) serious commentary on the all-important challenges facing the water industry.

Let’s keep the discourse moving. What do you think are the U.S. water industry’s greatest challenges? Leave your comment below. (And for more quality conversation, join Water Online’s LinkedIn group.)