Earlier this month, AMWA and the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) released the Water Resilience Summit Summary and Next Steps white paper. During the April Summit, more than 50 drinking water utility, wastewater utility, private sector, and federal officials came together for a day-and-a-half facilitated dialogue on climate and resilience issues in April of this year.
The summary provides an overview of the discussions and recommendations provided by summit attendees. It identifies three areas where AMWA and NACWA will work together. Specifically, in the near term, the associations will focus their efforts on the following:
- Document federal agencies with responsibilities for resilience, as well as existing partnerships involving federal agencies and local utilities and communities. Analyze the federal landscape for potential redundancies in resilience efforts and identify potential areas for collaboration.
- Advocate leveraging existing federal funds from agencies with programs that benefit drinking water and clean water utilities for projects that advance resilience goals (e.g., SRFs, WIFIA, Farm Bill, Dept. of Energy grants and HUD Community Block Grants.
- Make the case for streamlined permitting requirements and flexibility in addressing regulatory requirements with federal agencies, including lengthened permit terms, to allow for longer term resilience planning.