Major Water Utilities Join In Climate Alliance

 

Denver, CO

Eight of the nation's largest water utilities announced the formation of a coalition to improve research into the impacts of climate change on water utilities and as their first act provided comment on the federal climate change research plan summary.

The Water Utility Climate Alliance (WUCA) was formed by Denver Water, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Portland Water Bureau, San Diego County Water Authority, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Seattle Public Utilities and the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

Together, the WUCA members supply drinking water for more than 36 million people throughout the United States. Coalition members said they were united by the fact that climate change poses a major long-term challenge to delivering high-quality drinking water.

WUCA chair and San Francisco PUC General Manager Susan Leal said water utilities “are among the first responders to the effects of climate change. Our systems are facing risk due to diminishing snowpack, bigger storms, more frequent drought and rising sea levels. We need to be organized to respond to these risks — that's why we've formed this alliance."

SNWA General Manager Patricia Mulroy said US water agencies “will invest hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure over the next 15 years alone, and those investments must be informed by climate projections that are as accurate as possible."

The WUCA identified several key research needs that would improve the water supply sector’s ability to develop strategies to cope with potential impacts of climate change and urged the US Climate Change Science Program, as well as all researchers and scientists in the climate-change field, to:

  • Reduce the uncertainty in climate change projections by improving and refining global climate models and applying them at the regional or local level;
  • Enhance the collection, maintenance and accessibility of information, making the data more useful for decision-making purposes;
  • Ensure that water providers worldwide have access to consistent climate data;
  • Develop decision-support tools for planning, decision-making and policy-making that can accommodate deep uncertainty and the potential for abrupt climate changes; and
  • Coordinate international research efforts, particularly with those countries that are already experiencing the effects of climate change, such as Australia.
In addition to improving research, WUCA members intend to develop strategies for adapting to climate change and implement tactics to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The CCSP, which aims to integrate the climate change efforts of 13 federal agencies, issued a Summary of Revised Research Plan for comment in December, with a Feb. 28 deadline.

In addition to articulating the water industry's research needs, WUCA's comments included:

  • A question of when and how they might be able to review the full research plan.
  • Concern that insufficient attention was being given to the water utility sector in the development of partnerships and invitations to workshops.
  • A concern whether CCSP truly had "the requisite authority, both institutional and budgetary, to coordinate, prioritize and establish the federal government's climate research priorities across thirteen agencies."
SOURCE: American Water Works Association