News Highlights

To accompany Lake Appreciation month this past July, Source Water Collaborative member North American Lake Management Society (NALMS) released their position on source water protection (SWP). Founded in 1980, NALMS’s […]

With spills and contamination events making headlines across the country, drinking water utilities face an array of challenges protecting their source waters from man-made and natural disasters. Is your community […]

The Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program’s second-year of awards expands the pace of proactive watershed protection in the U.S. through conservation and improved stewardship of hundreds of thousands of acres of lands that provide drinking water, flood risk reduction, and an array of economic and environmental benefits. The sixteen awards total $2.75 million and will benefit organizations and partnerships in 18 states. The Heathy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program was conceived by Source Water Collaborative member the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water (EPA) and launched in late 2015. EPA co-funds the program along with another SWC member organization the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the U. S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment), which manages the partnership.

“This group of grant recipients reflects the remarkable creativity that local organizations show for protecting their drinking water sources and watersheds,” said Carlton Owen, the Endowment’s President and CEO. “Their efforts are voluntary, rooted in partnerships, and will benefit the economy, culture, and environment of their communities.” The Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program’s goal is to “accelerate and expand the strategic protection of healthy, freshwater ecosystems and their watersheds.” EPA and the Endowment each provide $625,000 annually for grants in a program that is planned to run for at least six years. NRCS has provided an additional $1.5 million over two years. In this second year, the program received 74 applications requesting more than $17 million. Grants focused on three categories: 1) short-term funding to leverage larger financing for targeted watershed protection; 2) funds to help build the capacity of local organizations for sustainable, long-term watershed protection; and 3) new techniques or approaches that advance the state of practice for watershed protection and that can be replicated across the country. For more information and to read about the funded projects, visit: http://usendowment.org/healthywatersheds.html

The lands around our water sources serve as vital water infrastructure for cities around the world. These lands collect, store and filter our water, and when managed well, can provide a number of additional benefits to people and nature. Beyond the Source, a new report from The Nature Conservancy in partnership with the Natural Capital Project, Forest Trends, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Latin American Water Funds Partnership, seeks to illustrate how nature-based solutions can be implemented at a scale that will make a visible difference in our collective pursuit to create a sustainable world and improve the lives of billions of people.

Beyond the Source analyzes source watersheds of more than 4,000 of the largest cities around the world, and finds that four out of five cities can reduce sediment and nutrient pollution by a meaningful amount through forest protection, reforestation and improved agricultural practices. These natural infrastructure solutions also provide a number of co-benefits, including improving the health and livelihoods of people living in cities and rural areas, preserving plant and animal biodiversity, trapping and storing carbon dioxide and building more resilient communities in the face of climate change. The research highlights water funds as a successful mechanism for downstream water users to fund upstream land conservation and restoration, securing improved water quality and supplies in return. An analysis of the cost for implementing source water protection activities shows that one in six cities could recoup the costs through savings in water treatment alone. Other cities can place a value on the co-benefits and “stack” the total value to realize a positive return on investment.

The maps and underlying data used in Beyond the Source represent a rich set of resources that lend themselves to further exploration.  The Nature Conservancy has developed an online companion to the report, accessed via www.protectingwater.org, that features an interactive map and enables users to explore the data.

To download the report and executive summary and access videos, infographics, and photo galleries, visit www.nature.org/beyondthesource.

We are pleased to welcome American Rivers to the Source Water Collaborative. American Rivers has a long history of work related to our mission of creative collaboration to protect drinking water sources. American Rivers protects wild rivers, restores damaged rivers, and conserves clean water for people and nature. Since 1973, American Rivers has protected and restored more than 150,000 miles of rivers through advocacy efforts, on-the-ground projects, and an annual America’s Most Endangered Rivers® campaign. Headquartered in Washington, DC, American Rivers has offices across the country and more than 250,000 members, supporters, and volunteers.

American Rivers works with partners including water utilities, private landowners, and government to protect source waters in a variety of ways. Key efforts include creating funding mechanisms, securing local codes and ordinances, establishing conservation easements, improving federal forest management and designating Wild and Scenic rivers.

We look forward to working with American Rivers in the years ahead.

Marking its tenth year, the Source Water Collaborative (SWC) is pleased to announce the launch of the Learning Exchange—an information sharing platform for people and organizations working to protect sources of drinking water. With the Learning Exchange, the SWC aims to strengthen the effectiveness of source water practitioners across the country by providing a platform to share experiences, transfer knowledge, and learn about funding and technical resources available to support their efforts.

Over the next five months (August –December 2016), the Learning Exchange will offer organized events, communications, and resources by theme, beginning with August, Creative Partnerships. This month, source water protection leaders will discuss their experiences forging and maintaining partnerships with nontraditional partners. Visit the SWC’s new Learning Exchange webpage to find tools and testimonials to help you get started finding the right partners.

Learning Exchange resources and events are available to all interested groups, and you are encouraged to participate and contribute in ways that suit you and your organization’s interests. Opportunities will vary each month and may include:

• Stories of success that showcase projects and partnerships making a difference in communities across the country and how others may duplicate these successes
• Knowledge sharing events such as webinars, brown bags, and virtual workshops
• Shareable quotes, graphics, and tips to support your organization’s operations and outreach efforts
• Technical and educational materials recommended to peers by Collaborative member organizations and Learning Exchange participants
• Opportunities to converse with peers through online networking forums and social media

The Source Water Collaborative offers a unique vehicle to bring together various perspectives and expertise that organizations may not be able to access on their own. Through the platforms of our national members and network of local collaboratives, we can offer a powerful venue for participants to connect with partners and build collective understanding.

Want to share your story on the Learning Exchange?

Do you have a success story, valuable tip, or technical resource you would like to share? Reach out to info@sourcewatercollaborative.org with your idea.

We hope you can join us!

People need clean drinking water—this simple truth is the inspiration behind all that is done at the Source Water Collaborative. Through the individual and collective efforts of its members and their extensive network of community partners, the Source Water Collaborative is acting to protect sources of drinking water because it is fundamental to the health and well-being of our nation.

The SWC’s first Accomplishments Report showcases how our approach, founded on the notion that coordinated actions among diverse partners is the surest way to increase the chances for success, is creating change in local communities. In this report, we invite you to explore a sampling of the Collaborative’s efforts from the past year and to join us in celebrating 10 years of achievement in source water collaboration. You may also find an introduction to our new website and a summary of the projects taking place in 2016, a few of which are currently underway, such as this Innovation Challenge.

The work the Collaborative and its member organizations do far exceeds the capacity of this report to tell the story. In the words of the Steering Committee co-chairs, “In the following pages, you will find a sampling of our various individual and collaborative efforts. While compiling stories for this report, we were at once impressed by the wide range of projects and partners, and reminded that source water protection indeed takes many forms, is best achieved collaboratively, and, despite the many challenges, is something that anyone can–and should–do. As you read these pages, we hope that you share in our sense of accomplishment. But we also challenge you to give pause and think creatively about what your organization and community can do to advance source water protection.”

We encourage you to visit our About Us page to access member websites where you can explore these initiatives. We hope that you take inspiration from these stories as we have, and find the opportunity to champion clean, safe drinking water in your communities. Source water protection ultimately relies on individual acts of stewardship. Thank you for all that you have already done and will do to protect sources of drinking water.

The Source Water Collaborative is excited to announce the “Reinforce the Source” Innovation Challenge. Through this challenge, the SWC is tapping an online community of software developers, code writers, and designers to create a prototype for a user-friendly, online information library open to regulators and the public to share information on contaminants of concern to drinking water. This centralized, open information exchange will combine the resources of many to facilitate and inform quicker development of critical source water protections.

As a nation, we face pressing and persistent water quality and quantity challenges that threaten the safety and sustainability of our water supplies. Incidents such as the spill to Elk River, West Virginia highlight the importance of source water protection to public health and local economies. Despite the potential consequences, there are many known pollutants present in surface waters that serve as sources of drinking water but for which there are no formal protections provided under federal, state, or local laws. It is extremely resource intensive and technically daunting for government agencies to develop regulatory protections, such as water quality criteria or Maximum Contaminant Levels, in a timely manner when acting alone, leaving our drinking water sources exposed to potentially harmful contamination. Now is the time for change.

This spring 2016, solvers are challenged to submit user interface design, information flow and architecture, and coding solutions through a series of challenges held through the Top Coder innovation challenge competition platform. A panel of judges will rate submissions on ease-of-use, technical feasibility, user experience, and design. Winners will receive cash prizes and an opportunity to receive public recognition through the Source Water Collaborative.

Visit the Source Water Collaborative challenge page to review the challenge description, check out prizes, track challenge progress, and access the competition webpage on Top Coder’s challenge platform.

The Source Water Collaborative is pleased to announce the release of its latest source water protection outreach tool: Source to Tap. Now available through the Collaborative’s website, Source to Tap invites users to explore an interactive landscape to learn how various Clean Water Act “tools” can be employed to reduce pollution in sources of drinking water. It is designed to enable a wide range of practitioners—from state water quality managers to watershed activists—to engage in the many opportunities to leverage the regulatory and non-regulatory provisions of the Clean Water Act, such as Water Quality Standards, Designated Uses, and Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) to protect drinking water sources.

Source water protection, by its very nature, must be a collaborative undertaking among various parties having differing roles, levels of authority, access to information, and expertise. It relies on a wide array of stakeholders, perspectives, and information. Source to Tap demonstrates what opportunities for participation exist to contribute local knowledge, data, and important perspectives to inform state clean water and drinking water program managers align their efforts to better target and apply the Clean Water Act to protect source water. The infographic adapts strategies from the popular publication, Opportunities to Protect Drinking Water and Advance Watershed Goals Through the Clean Water Act: A Toolkit for State, Interstate, Tribal and Federal Program Managers, which was developed via a multi-year collaborative effort by state and EPA water quality managers across clean water and safe drinking water programs.

Access Source to Tap from the Source Water Collaborative website “Quick Tools” toolbar or follow this link.