November, 2011

October/November, 2011

EPA Conducting Free CREAT Web Training Sessions

Over the next several months, EPA is conducting a series of free web-based training sessions on the use of its Climate Resilience Evaluation and Assessment Tool (CREAT).  The training sessions will be conducted in several modules.  Currently scheduled training sessions are:

CREAT 101 - Introduction and background - October 12, 20 and 26; November 3
CREAT 201 - Climate science and inventory functionality - October 20; November 1 and 10
CREAT 202 - Assessment, adaptation planning, and reporting functionality - October 25; November 8 and 15

All training sessions take place between 2:00 to 3:30 EST.

To get more detailed information and sign up for the training sessions go to https://www.thetestportal.com/CREAT

October, 2011

Legislation intended to help the nation's drinking water and wastewater utilities adapt their infrastructure to the impacts of changing hyrological conditions -- included those influenced by global climate change -- was recently introduced in the U.S. Congress.

The "Water Infrastructure Resiliency and Sustainability Act" (H.R. 2738/S. 1669) would establish a competetive grant program at EPA to offer matching funds to local adaptation projects intended to address the impacts of changing hyrological conditions on infrastructure and water quality and quantity.  It is similar to legislation previously introduced in an earlier session of Congress.

For more information on the Senate bill, click here.  For the House version, click here.

September, 2011

New EPA Report Assesses Challenges In Performing Climate-Related Vulnerability Assessments

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new report, Aquatic Ecosystems, Water Quality, and Global Change: Challenges of Conducting Multi-stressor Global Change Vulnerability Assessments, that “investigates the issues and challenges associated with identifying, calculating, and mapping indicators of the relative vulnerability of water quality and aquatic ecosystems, across the United States, to the potential adverse impacts of external forces such as long-term climate and land-use change.”

The best practices and remaining challenges for developing multi-stressor vulnerability assessments discussed in the report are based on analysis of over 600 water quality and aquatic ecosystem conditions.  However, the report does not provide any direct assessments of water quality changes, rather it is intended to provide a framework within which existing data gaps can be filled and vulnerability assessments performed.

The full report (pdf) is available for download.

July, 2011

New Report Predicts Climate Impacts on Water Resources of U.S. Cities

A new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) outlines the likely impacts of global climate change on the water resources of twelve cities across the U.S., detailing challenges such as rising sea levels, prolonged drought, and more intense precipitation events.

The report also discusses the steps these cities are taking to begin to adapt to these changing conditions, and recommends that communities carry out climate vulnerability assessments to more clearly identify how climate change will impact them.

To access the NRDC report, Click Here.

June, 2011

EPA Releases Climate Adaptation Policy Statement

EPA's new climate adaption policy, signed on June 2, 2011 by Administrator Lisa Jackson, says that the climate change "will require that the EPA anticipate and plan for future changes in climate and incorporate considerations of climate change into many of its programs, policies, rules and operations to ensure they are effective under future climatic conditions."

The policy sets forth nine requirements EPA will undertake to ensure effective adaptation planning and implementation, including the development of a climate change adaptation plan and performance measures.

To read the policy, Click Here.

June, 2011

CEQ Releases Draft Water Resources Climate Management Plan

The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) recently released for comment the Draft National Action Plan for Managing Freshwater Resources in a Changing Climate.  The report was developed in response to a specific recommendation from the 2010 Progress Report by the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force requesting the plan.

Public comments may be submitted until July 15, 2011.

To view the draft plan, Click Here.

May, 2011

America's Climate Choices Report Released

The National Research Council has released the final report of America's Climate Choices, which aims to guide how U.S. policymakers may respond to global climate change.

The report explains that the nation should mobilize now to develop adaptation plans and reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts. While adaptation planning largely occurs at the state and local level, the report recommends that the federal government help coordinate and develop a national adaptation strategy.

To access the report, Click Here.

April, 2011

A new report from the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Reclamation finds that global climate change will have a significant impact on water supplies in the western United States.

Among other findings, the report says that precipitation will increase over the northwestern and north-central portions of the western United States and decrease over the southwestern and south-central areas.  Along with expected changes in temperature, this is likely to impact the timing and quantity of stream flows in all western basins, which could impact water available to farms and cities, hydropower generation, fish and wildlife, and other uses such as recreation.

For more information and to view the report, Click Here.

April, 2011

WUCA Outlines Piloting Utility Modeling Applications project

The Water Utility Climate Alliance (WUCA) Piloting Utility Modeling Applications (PUMA) project is a collaborative venture bringing together WUCA utilities, Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) leaders, and selected representatives of the climate science and applications community in pursuit of several goals.  Objectives include identifying state-of-the-art climate modeling tools and techniques for use by the utilities and framing the value proposition of these tools by articulating the uncertainties embedded in modeling results, as well as how to best use downscaled and other climate modeling data in planning.

For more information, visit www.wucaonline.org/html/actions_puma.html.

Looking for Something Older?

AMWA's Climate Change Committee

In 2007 AMWA formed a Climate Change Committee, which is intended to help drinking water utilities monitor and shape federal rules, research, and legislation related to climate change.  The committee meets in person at AMWA's spring and fall meetings, as well as periodically by conference call.

All AMWA members are invited to join the committee.  To join, contact Scott Biernat in AMWA's national office.

Climate Change Committee documents, such as meeting summaries and handouts, are available here (login required).