Integrating Water Infrastructure in a New Paradigm for Sustainable, Resilient Communities

The advancement toward more sustainable communities continues to gather strength. However, the current emphasis on achieving LEED certification is problematic from a water perspective. The focus on prescribed design features and practices means that priority sustainability needs for the watershed may go unaddressed despite the green building and site achieving LEED certification. Without a paradigm that places development design in the context of sustainable community and watershed needs, the nation risks moving further away from its sustainability goals. Research conducted for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) under a grant from the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) is aimed at identifying the foundation and support structure for sustainable water infrastructure at the community and watershed scale. Two communities (Tucson-Pima County AZ and Northern Kentucky) and an expert advisory panel were recruited to participate in a retreat to flesh out ideas for a new water infrastructure paradigm. The research team and its community and expert advisory panel representatives identified key principles that provide a foundation for a new paradigm for sustainable water infrastructure. Among the principles that contrast with past and current practices are valuing all water as a resource, moving toward a performance-based regulatory framework, aspiring toward better outcomes, and recognizing true costs while maximizing the value of action. A framework for supporting this new sustainable water infrastructure paradigm has been developed and includes as core elements an integrated planning structure that connects current institutional silos, a technical toolbox to use in the context of performance-based requirements at the watershed and community scale, regulatory flexibility to encourage innovation and affect better outcomes, research and demonstration to build knowledge and capacity, new partnerships and funding mechanisms, and a variety of means for engaging the community stakeholders to broaden support and affect better outcomes.