On a summer morning, a storm dropped buckets of rain on the desert outside Tucson, Ariz. Water ran over the dry soil. Most of the water subsequently evaporated, but some parched plants drank their fill. What was left over sank into the ground, percolating into the aquifer below.
A few kilometers down the road, Tucson Water pumped groundwater from the same aquifer to a nearby reservoir, then through its treatment system. A Tucson ratepayer turned on her tap and used a few liters of water to give her dog a bath. The soiled water flowed into Tucson’s wastewater system and once again was treated. A portion of that recycled wastewater was released into the Santa Cruz River, where parkgoers enjoyed watching it flow through the city.
In Tucson, as in the rest of the world, every human interaction with water is connected to a broader water system.
But water practitioners haven’t always treated their work with the same interconnected approach. Instead, many cities and regions divide their water into three silos: drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater, each managed separately.
That approach is not meeting the needs of many communities. And a different approach, called One Water, is beginning to take its place.
One Water treats drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater as a single, interconnected entity and attempts to manage it holistically, bringing together water utilities, community members, business and industry leaders, researchers, politicians, engineers, and advocacy groups.
In a One Water approach, the Tucson ratepayer, water utility, and parkgoer are equal stakeholders, and water practitioners attempt to create a water system that works well for each of them.
“Partnerships and collaboration are at its core,” said Scott Berry, director of policy and government affairs at the US Water Alliance, a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to advancing a “One Water future for all.”
A holistic, inclusive approach is not without obstacles, though. Different stakeholders bring different priorities and practices and may have cultural, historical regulatory, and organizational barriers that keep them from collaborating effectively.
To navigate such challenges, water stakeholders from varied sectors across the United States come together at an annual conference (soon to be held every 18 months), the One Water Summit, hosted by the US Water Alliance. About 70% of attendees come as part of a delegation, a peer group, typically organized by region, whose members want to work together on U.S. water issues.
These delegations are the lifeblood of the summit and uniquely mirror the One Water approach: They’re meant to be highly collaborative, allowing stakeholders with very different priorities to come together and work toward a common cause. Though the framework is hindered by funding constraints and a lack of engagement from some sectors, delegations have provided a valuable opportunity for sharing knowledge and bringing One Water projects to fruition.
Siloed Systems
In the water sector, siloed systems are the norm. The inertia they engender can be hard to break when trying to build collaborative networks.
In some cases, siloed approaches contribute to unaligned regulations, which can limit a collaboration’s success, explained Caity Peterson, a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center.
For example, someone working on a wastewater problem must navigate both environmental and health regulations. A One Water program might involve potable reuse, or recycling wastewater into drinking water by purifying it, filtering it, and diverting it to groundwater or reservoir supplies. Such a project needs to ensure that the recycled water complies with environmental regulations that govern water quality for irrigation and other nonpotable uses. But once that water is destined for a drinking water supply, it must also comply with health regulations. “A little bit of streamlining” of those regulations can bolster collaboration, Peterson said.
Siloed jurisdictions can present another challenge for water practitioners. Though the flow of water respects no political or system boundary, water managers do work within such jurisdictions, said Sarin Pokhrel, a water resource engineer for the Environment and Protected Areas Ministry of Alberta, Canada. (Some local governments within Alberta, such as Edmonton, where Pokhrel is based, use a One Water approach.)
British Columbia, where Pokhrel previously worked, is home to an array of jurisdictions: Municipalities govern water via local bylaws, Indigenous communities manage their own water, and districts follow broader regional plans. Unifying plans under a single framework that all levels of water management can follow is very challenging, he said.
The US Water Alliance added the delegation structure to its annual conference in 2016 as a way for water practitioners to overcome these barriers and move toward One Water ideals. Berry, who leads delegation work at the US Water Alliance, said he thinks of the delegation system as an opportunity for stakeholders to “road test” collaborations.
“It’s a way to test the waters of collaboration away from the normal sphere of influence.”
“It’s this idea of getting a bunch of folks together who may not work together often, or who may even be at odds with one another,” he said. “It’s a way to test the waters of collaboration away from the normal sphere of influence.”
Organizers of the One Water Summit encourage delegations, which can be assembled by anyone with the interest, ability, and time to recruit fellow delegates, to attend. Delegation members can register at a discounted rate, and the summit provides opt-in programming specifically for delegates. Around one thousand people and 20–40 delegations attend each year. Membership in any one delegation has ranged from fewer than 10 to almost 50 people, Berry said.
The first half day of each summit is dedicated to “peer exchanges,” where delegations present their work to each other. These presentations range from showcasing a particular success to workshopping a problem that the delegation is facing, Berry said.
At the 2023 Tucson summit, for example, the Tap into Resilience delegation hosted a peer exchange to brainstorm how to scale up distributed water infrastructure, a type of ultralocal water system meant to be more affordable than conventional water systems. The Climate Action delegation shared strategies for utilities to use capital investments to make progress on their climate plans. And the New Jersey delegates hosted a discussion about how delegations can build relationships with state governments to advance One Water.
At an end-of-summit plenary, delegations are invited to announce “commitments to action” for the coming year.
“The entire plenary, you’re surrounded by all this amazing work that’s going to be happening in all these different places,” Berry said. “You get a sense that you’re not alone and that there are opportunities for collaboration.”
Commitments to action range from informal directives to full proposals. Delegations at the 2023 summit committed to developing new One Water plans for their cities, improving community engagement around water issues, sharing what they’d learned with local leaders and policymakers, and constructing new green stormwater and water treatment facilities. Delegations that return to the subsequent summit are encouraged to share how they’ve progressed on their commitments.
One Water, Many Networks
Water practitioners report a strengthening of the depth and breadth of their collaborations as a result of participating in a delegation.
“I felt like I really got to know people in a different way, not just as colleagues but as friends,” said Rebekah Jones, communications director for the Iowa Soybean Association’s Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance, who attended the 2023 One Water Summit as part of the delegation from Iowa. Jones deepened her relationships with colleagues at the city of Cedar Rapids and Des Moines Water Works and especially enjoyed meeting members of a delegation from Hawaii, who shared how critical water is to Hawaiian culture and livelihoods.
Jennifer Walker of the Texas delegation, director of the Texas Coast and Water Program at the National Wildlife Federation, said she feels the same after attending multiple summits. When a delegation convenes away from their home community, “everybody has a little bit more time to focus on the content, spend some time together, and build relationships,” she said.
“We can come together in ways that would be almost impossible at home.”
Because Texas is such a large state, the delegation venue is crucial for getting Texas stakeholders, including nonprofits, utilities, engineers, consultants, elected officials, and community members in the same room.
The delegations are building relationships among people who don’t work together day-to-day, said Michelle Stockness, executive director of the Freshwater Society, a nonprofit based in Saint Paul, Minn. Stockness attended the 2023 summit as a member of the Minnesota delegation. “We’re building those relationships so that we can talk about hard things a little more easily.”
“We can come together in ways that would be almost impossible at home,” said Candice Rupprecht, a water conservation program manager for the city of Tucson and a member of the Tucson delegation, in a 2019 presentation.
Strengthened relationships have sparked meaningful progress on One Water projects across the country.
At the 2023 conference, the Iowa delegation held an educational session for other summit attendees about urban and rural collaboration via an exercise about a fictional town called Farmersville and its picturesque Crystal River. Attendees attempted to fix a water quality problem in Farmersville—a suddenly odorous and murky Crystal River—while playing a role that was different from their real-life job. For example, a water researcher could act as mayor, and a utility staff member could role-play a farmer.
In the scenario, the urban community blamed rural farmers for soil erosion and nutrient pollution, whereas farmers accused the city of industrial pollution and ineffective waste management. Workshop attendees had to navigate these concerns as they developed a plan to improve water quality.
“It got people thinking out of the box about what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes,” Jones said.
In New Jersey, water practitioners had already formed a coalition of community members, nonprofit organizations, government entities, and utilities when the delegation from the state began attending the summit in 2016. Participating as a delegation supplemented the group’s holistic effort, said Paula Figueroa, director of the Jersey Water Works Collaborative and a former New Jersey delegate. For the New Jersey delegation, the summit is an important source of energy to balance the sometimes draining, difficult work of advancing a One Water approach, she said.
After the 2022 summit, Figueroa noticed that two leaders, one a New Jersey utility staff member and the other an employee of the Jersey Water Works Collaborative, began to collaborate, inviting each other to more events and sharing the other’s work. The new relationship increased the visibility of a shared, primary project: replacing lead service lines across the state.
The summit offers delegations opportunities for interstate cooperation as well. Following conversations between the Pittsburgh and Milwaukee delegations at the 2022 and 2023 summits, delegates from Pennsylvania and Wisconsin held a dedicated learning exchange in Milwaukee the following year.
Some water issues in Pittsburgh would have taken 2 or 3 years each to solve, but as a result of knowledge gained in the Wisconsin exchange, “we were able to complete five or six problems in 2 or 3 years,” said Jamil Bey, founder of the UrbanKind Institute and a longtime member of the Pittsburgh delegation. “That learning exchange model is really powerful.”
The event in Milwaukee helped inform a new approach to addressing stormwater reclamation in Pittsburgh, for instance, said Kelly Henderson, who was part of the Pittsburgh cohort that attended the learning exchange.
One of the locations the group visited was Green Tech Station, a former brownfield site that the Northwest Side Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit in Milwaukee, had transformed into a stormwater reclamation facility. Green Tech Station can capture more than 380,000 liters of stormwater each time it rains—water that is then used to irrigate trees on the site. The facility also includes a prairie ecosystem with native plants, a pavilion to host educational programming, and a collection of artwork.
Henderson, executive director of Grounded Strategies, a nonprofit focused on community-driven vacant lot reclamation, found Green Tech Station so inspiring that she decided to create something similar in Pittsburgh. Grounded Strategies, along with partners from the Department of City Planning in Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority and elsewhere, recently received a $55,000 grant to start the project. As they plan the site, they’ll be in close contact with the group that constructed Green Tech Station, Henderson said.
Delegations can also facilitate cooperation between stakeholders with different immediate interests.
In 2017, for instance, the Tucson delegation committed to a lofty goal: returning perennial water flow to the Santa Cruz River. At the time, the stretch of the river in downtown Tucson flowed only during rainstorms.
Rupprecht, the Tucson Water conservation manager and four-time Tucson delegation member, said delegation members were key to advocating for Arizona’s Drought Contingency Plan, a change in state law that increased recycled water recharge credits. Under the Drought Contingency Plan, Tucson Water can receive credits for 95% of the water released into the Santa Cruz River, then use those credits in the future to secure additional water supply.
Within a year, Tucson Water’s Santa Cruz River Heritage Project had released enough recycled water to the river that it flowed anew for the first time in almost 80 years. The new stretch of perennial river restored plants, revitalized a ciénaga (wetland) ecosystem, and provided new habitat for wildlife such as herons, native toads, coyotes, and dragonflies.
Inclusivity Obstacles
Though many delegations have made tangible progress toward One Water goals, barriers still exist to achieving full cross-sector engagement.
“With something like One Water…if you don’t do a good job of building those relationships and building those ties between sectors, then there’s a risk it could be just some pleasant marketing but not really delivering the outcomes that it’s supposed to deliver,” Peterson said.
One major barrier is money. Attending the summit comes at a financial cost that can be too high for underfunded organizations.“It’s all about money,” said Pokhrel, the Alberta engineer. “Do we have enough budget? Do we have enough resources to fulfill this?”
“Most of the most vulnerable people who are having water issues, they don’t have the resources to participate.”
“Most of the most vulnerable people who are having water issues, they don’t have the resources to participate,” Bey said. “There’s a minimum threshold for organizational capacity that you have to have to connect you to these types of conversations.”
The US Water Alliance tries to help delegates from underfunded organizations attend the summit with a tiered registration fee system. “If you’re a small nonprofit, you’re going to pay less than a private company or a large urban utility,” Berry said. “The people who are more resourced, who can afford to pay more, do pay more, and that helps us subsidize the cost for the folks who are less well resourced.”
A little funding can go a long way to help include historically marginalized voices. With help from a grant from the US Water Alliance, for instance, in 2023 the Minnesota delegation was able to invite representatives from the Indigenous-led nonprofit Honor the Earth, as well as community members from the Environmental Justice Coordinating Council (EJCC). Members of EJCC had previously attended the 2022 One Water Summit in Milwaukee, where they had committed to working on issues of environmental health in Minnesota, particularly the impact of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on drinking water.
“Providing funding for community and tribal members was really important to get the people we wanted to be there and have that diverse representation.”
“Providing funding for community and tribal members was really important to get the people we wanted to be there and have that diverse representation of multiple perspectives,” Stockness said.
Delegates from Honor the Earth and EJCC could not be reached for comment in time for publication.
Berry and some past delegates said they feel that the agriculture industry is underrepresented at the summits, too. Agriculture is a huge element of the water system, responsible for about 70% of freshwater use worldwide. The proportion of agriculture practitioners at the summit is “still not as big as it could be, or should be,” said Sean McMahon, a sustainable agriculture consultant who has been involved in coordinating the Iowa delegation for five summits.
City utilities make up the majority of membership in the US Water Alliance, and urban organizations dominate the summit—a dynamic that may make the rural agriculture community feel ostracized, Peterson said. If members of the agriculture community are not engaging in a collaboration, that might mean the benefit of participating is not clear to them.
As in the fictional Farmersville, agriculture communities and urban water suppliers may not always see eye to eye. Farmers may be frustrated with what they see as overly restrictive regulations in an already difficult economic environment, whereas urban utilities prioritize delivering clean drinking water to their ratepayers.
The agriculture sector often gets cast as a villain and may feel that it must defend itself against other water practitioners who aren’t familiar with the hardships of farm operations, Peterson said. Making clear to farmers the mutual benefits of a One Water approach could improve collaboration. For instance, many sustainable agriculture practices both benefit farm finances and improve downstream water quality.
McMahon recommended that delegation leaders reach out to agriculture associations to find champions of improving water quality and water use efficiency. “If you’re framing your proposal like, ‘Come help us talk about these complicated issues from your perspective,’ it’s like a wide-open door to have really powerful conversations,” said Jones.
“The water is the bridge.”
Clare Lindahl, chief executive officer of the Soil and Water Conservation Society, a member of the Soil and Water Conservation delegation, and a board member of the US Water Alliance, said her delegation has had success building relationships across the urban and rural divide by emphasizing the value of water to all stakeholders. “The water is the bridge,” she said.
When a highly diverse group of stakeholders makes it to the summit, collaboration can lead to what Figueroa called a “healthy push and pull”: Everyone sitting around the table may have different expectations, goals, and work practices. Delegations have found that defining common goals and outlining clear responsibilities are the best way around that.
For example, the New Jersey group has centered its conversations around four shared goals: having effective and financially sustainable water systems; empowering stakeholders and ensuring that they are well-informed; building successful, beneficial green infrastructure; and creating smart combined sewer overflow control systems.
“That’s our North Star, and that has helped us,” Figueroa said.
“It’s hard to break down silos if your objectives aren’t clear,” Peterson said. Being “really candid and clear about who’s involved, what the roles are, and what the responsibilities are for the beginning, middle, and end of the project” can help, she said.
Berry said he has high hopes for the future of delegations. He imagines an eventual Colorado River delegation that would include stakeholders from throughout the Colorado River Basin. Other dreams include a Great Lakes delegation and a Mississippi River delegation. “There’s so much ground to cover,” he said.
“It’s both a resources and money question, and it’s a relationship question,” Berry said.
—Grace van Deelen (@GVD__), Staff Writer
