Conference Agenda

Current Clean Water Act regulations affecting municipal wastewater and stormwater discharges inhibit collective efforts as individual stakeholders are forced to address rigid and narrowly focused regulations. EPA's Integrated Municipal Stormwater and Wastewater Planning Approach Framework that applies systems thinking based on a one water principle, coupled with local accountability. A more effective one-water regulatory framework can create more economical and sustainable outcomes that result in better overall water quality. Integrated planning is a concept that supports prioritization of capital investments in all forms of water infrastructure designed to protect human health and the environment, and to incorporate societal objectives in the most cost-effective, affordable way. Integrated planning also provides more coordination and up-front planning at the local level along with local stakeholder accountability. The result is less cost to achieve ultimate goals, compliance with regulations, and successful outcomes. While the framework has existed for a decade and is now part of the Clean Water Act, less than 0.5 percent of communities are taking advantage of it.

The Water Environment Federation established the Integrated Planning Task Force (IPTF) to provide effective and focused leadership about integrated planning through collaboration with WEF committees, WEF members, regulators, municipalities, and other stakeholders. A long-term goal for the IPTF is to increase incorporation of integrated planning in the development of municipal National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits and consent decrees in enforcement actions under the Clean Water Act.

The Roadmap for Integrated Planning purpose is educating this audience about integrated planning and helping utilities and regulators understand how integrated planning could benefit the utility, the regulatory agency, the community, and the environment. This session will provide an overview of the content of the Roadmap and the plans to help both utilities and regulators become more knowledgeable about integrated planning and to begin using it for NPDES permitting and enforcement actions. Participants will learn about when integrated planning is likely to be most successful, reinforced with case study experience, and how an integrated plan can be efficiently developed for a community.

The paper will summarize the IPTF's plans for taking the roadmap "on the road."

There’s never been a better time than now for utility leaders to examine and improve business processes throughout their organization. With many utilities experiencing on-going staffing and funding challenges, the Water Environment Federations’ (WEF) WISE program for Utility Management provides utility leaders with a framework and methodology to create greater value and improve performance. This comprehensive approach to improve management and performance in water sector utilities encourages full systems thinking. It provides greater value to stakeholders, improves senior leadership’s ability to make an impact, and increases employee engagement and thus their motivation to add value to the organization. It is a collaborative peer-to-peer effort that includes leading utilities from all over the U.S. including Charlotte Water, Louisville MSD, Great Lakes Water Authority, San Francisco, DC Water, the City of Portland and others in the US as well as utilities in Canada and the United Kingdom.

One of the greatest strengths of the WISE program is the collaboration among the participating utilities: the Utility Partners. Subject Matter Experts from the Utility Partners have created leading practice models for Capital Improvement Programs, Asset Management, Capital Project Business Case Evaluation, and several other business processes. The presentation will include an overview of the methodology and several case studies where utilities have successfully employed elements of the approach as well as the findings of current pilot projects. Participants will learn how they can become part of the consortium of utilities improving their business practices in meaningful and comprehensive ways.