Research Study Can Our Water Infrastructure — And Utility Managers — Weather The Storm?
Extreme weather is battering our nation’s water infrastructure, but utilities are gaining valuable lessons on how to deal with future events.By Claudio H. Ternieden, Erica Brown, Lauren Fillmore, Karen Metchis, Kenan Ozekin, and Nancy Beller-Simms
Extreme weather events are increasingly common and can potentially impact the nation’s water infrastructure, such as water and wastewater conveyance and treatment systems, intakes, stormwater, and drainage management systems. These events may include longer and more frequent and intense storms with higher winds and storm surges, prolonged higher temperatures, extended drought, earlier snowmelts, and sea level rise. These extreme events have added unpredictability to an already challenging job fac - ing water, wastewater, and stormwater service providers, emergency planners and responders, elected officials, and local and regional decision- makers. Recently, federal agencies and research organiza - tions joined to collect information on these events in six areas of the United States, and their findings will help utilities and other organizations to better plan their infrastructure investments and implementation approaches. In August 2010, more than 80 drinking water, storm - water, and wastewater utility practitioners participated in a workshop that focused on their weather-sensitive information needs for making key decisions on long-lived and costly investments. (See Water Research Foundation publication “The Future of Research on Climate Change Impacts on Water” [2011] or the Water Environment Research Foundation [WERF6C10] report for the full workshop proceedings and outcomes.) These practitioners were particularly concerned about their risk and vulnerability in preparing for and adapting to an increased number and intensity of extreme weather events. Participants noted that a number of their colleagues have faced an extreme event in the recent past and that they could benefit from the knowledge gained and lessons learned from others’ experiences to better prepare for and adapt to future events. An outcome of the 2010 discussions was an agreement between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. EPA to collaborate with water research organizations, including the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) and the Water Research Foundation (WaterRF), to document these experiences and synthesize collective knowledge. Over time, other research organizations, such as Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) and Noblis, joined this effort. This ground - breaking collaboration enabled researchers to examine how water utilities, resource managers, county and/ or regional planners, and military installations made decisions while experiencing these types of extreme events and how they adapted their plan - ning to better prepare for them in the future. The study will identify how scientific data was used in various regions of the country to inform decision making, either during the event or while planning for future events. In addition, the study will identify what information gaps need to be filled to improve the ability of water services and local and regional planners to adapt and respond to recurring events. Collaborators have held a series of regional extreme-event- focused workshops, organized by type of extreme event (or cascading sets of events) including drought, heavy rain and flooding, sea level rise and storm surge, and extreme tem - peratures. Each workshop included an overview of scientific understanding of past, present, and future climate; descrip - tions of the events, including how they affected the com - munity and the water and wastewater utilities and/or military installations; and discussions with other water resource decision-makers in the watershed that affected the stakehold - ers’ actions. Participants examined the actions taken and the constraints under which the communities operated, based on first-hand accounting. Practitioners and experts discussed wateronline.com n Water Online The Magazine 26 Extreme low water levels due to drought are evident in Lake Travis, Austin TX. the roles that decision-makers, information providers, and other relevant officials played in the response to the events and in planning for future extreme events. These meetings have allowed extensive discussions of local planning and water resource issues, collaboration among a broad group of stakeholders, and the identification of possible new partners. The research team and collaborating organizations will extract both the lessons learned and the information needed by the communities and water service providers to make better decisions to prepare for and respond to extreme events in the future. Case studies documenting the events, the experiences, and the workshop objectives, outcomes, and findings will be published. Specific out - comes will address: • The key challenges experienced in responding to these conditions; • Partnerships, technologies, tools, information, services, and/or other approaches that were most helpful; • Communications conducted before and during these conditions; • Procedures that were in place and invoked during the response to the event; • The decisions made during these conditions and who made them; • The key impacts to water resources, as well as social, economic, and ecological impacts; and • Changes as a result of these events — in planning, implementation, approaches, capital improvements, collaboration, communication, and decision-making. The regions and water basins documented in these case studies include the Russian River watershed California; Apalachicola/Chattahoochee/Flint River Basin, Georgia; the Tidewater area, Virginia; the National Capital area, Washington, D.C.; the Lower Missouri River Basin, Kansas and Missouri; and the Lower Colorado River Basin, Austin, Texas. The issues, impacts, approaches, information gaps, needs, and local resilience are unique to each region. However, some preliminary observations have emerged that allow us to think about adaptation to extreme events with a focus on local needs. For example, the Russian River watershed has a history of variable weather and now it faces an emerging pattern that is more erratic and unpredictable — the 2006 New Year’s Day flood, the 2007-2009 droughts, and an unusually intense period of frosts in the spring of 2008. These weather-driven events require management of both flood risk and water supply in balance with environ - mental needs, and they show the interdependent challenges water resource professionals face. In the Tidewater area of Virginia — the eastern Virginia coastal plain where the James, Rappahannock, and York Rivers join the Chesapeake Bay — are four cities (Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach), rural and small com - munities, military installations, including the world’s larg - est naval station (the Norfolk Naval Base), and a large state-owned cargo port. In the last few years, this region has seen Hurricane Isabel, Hurricane Irene, and more recently, three days apart (August 25 and 28, 2012), two “short-fuse” nor’easters — all with devastating effects on its coastlines and adjacent communities. Coastal erosion continues to affect infrastructure, sea level rise is causing salinity of inland water sources, and utilities are recording salt water at their intakes. Newport News raised its reservoir water level one foot to keep fresh water upstream and brackish tidal water downstream, and the Norfolk Naval Base has experienced storms which caused base and roadway flooding, overtopped piers, disrupted utilities, eroded shore - line, destabilized grounds, and increased loads on structures. These communities, utilities, and the Navy are working to identify ways they can adapt to and prepare for future extreme events. Some preliminary observations collected through these various workshops are: • Water utilities and communities must embrace both emergency response and long-term preparedness; • The complex array of decision-makers affecting water resources within a watershed require communication (and innovation) beyond boundaries to manage surprises; • Multijurisdictional fragmentation creates community patterns and vulnerabilities that are dif - ficult to address; • Water utility managers are com - petently taking action within their span of control — but confronting real, long-term vulnerability is likely to require broader community action; and • Managers need better access to local information to manage resources for impending extreme events. These case studies will help communities think about their own challenges, plan and respond to potential threats, and educate their citizens and decision-makers on the importance of adaptation planning, no matter where in the country they are located. More importantly, these communities will be able to identify gaps in information and potential needs that need to be addressed — before these extreme events happen. This article was prepared by a team of authors: Claudio H. Ternieden (Concurrent Technologies Corporation); Erica Brown (Noblis); Lauren Fillmore (WERF); Karen Metchis (EPA); Kenan Ozekin (WRF); and Nancy Beller-Simms (NOAA)
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