As part of efforts to educate the public about water issues, a nonprofit organization and four local government entities in Madison, Wisconsin, recently collaborated to provide a course and certification program that included a focus on the One Water approach.

First held this past June and then again in September, the Water Steward course consisted of three hours of instruction divided into two sessions, during which participants received an in-depth education on their local water system and ways to improve it.

Group effort

Sustain Dane, a local nonprofit organization that promotes environmental and economic sustainability, led the effort. Experts from the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District, the Madison Area Municipal Storm Water Partnership, the Madison Water Utility, and the Dane County Land and Water Resources Department contributed to the curriculum and participated as instructors in the Water Steward course.

Targeted to the general public, the course cost $15.00, making it an “easy-to-attend and low-pressure way for people to start getting more involved in the water world,” says Emily Jones, a pollution prevention specialist for the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District and a curriculum contributor for the course.

The first of the two sessions gave participants an overview of the systems in place for providing drinking water, treating wastewater, and managing stormwater in Madison, says Lorenza Zebell, a program manager for Sustain Dane. Discussions also focused on such issues as groundwater depletion and the presence of PFAS and other pollutants of concern in the Madison area.

The second session covered “actions that you can take to help conserve, protect, restore, and advocate for water locally,” Zebell says. Such actions included proper ways to salt sidewalks in winter, using the right amount of water for lawn care, reducing stormwater runoff, and preventing pollutants from entering the environment.

Following the second session, participants have the option to complete an outreach project in partnership with Sustain Dane in order to receive certification.

More than 120 participants completed the course, some of whom have already finished their projects for certification, Zebell says. “We've seen people replace their water softeners with an updated, more efficient version,” she says.

Other projects have been educational in nature. For example, a group of people taught children at a Boys and Girls Club about water. “They did water testing and taught them about water monitoring and water quality,” Zebell says.

More broadly, the course sought to inspire participants to share their newfound knowledge with others, Jones says. “The other component of that program was participants taking the lessons back to their network, whether that was social, personal or professional, and educating other people about the concepts that had been learned,” she says.

Teaching the water cycle

A key goal of the course involved helping participants understand where their water comes from and what happens to it after they have used it, Jones says. “That's a really important, basic piece of knowledge for people to have, because it gives them a clear understanding of where their actions fit into the water cycle,” Jones says. “We really wanted to show people where they are in the water cycle and emphasize to them that they are a part of the water cycle. It's not just something that happens outside in nature.”

Along with explaining the different approaches used to treat drinking water, clean wastewater, and manage stormwater, the course also sought to highlight the One Water concept, Jones says. This was done to help participants understand that these seemingly different forms of water are in fact interrelated, even though they may be the responsibility of different agencies.

“We [talked] about the traditionally divided [water] sectors,” Jones says. But the course emphasized “how those are connected,” using examples such as water reuse, she says. “One Water [was] definitely mentioned specifically as a concept.”

‘Mutually beneficial partnership’

The Water Steward course represents the first time that the agencies have worked together on this sort of public education. Historically, the organizations have tended to operate individually, instead of coordinating on messaging or activities, Jones says. The course is a departure from such solo approaches. “There's a growing push to be more integrated in how we talk about water,” she says.

Such collaboration offers a “mutually beneficial partnership” to the groups involved, Jones says. As a membership organization that offers classes to its members, Sustain Dane has the “infrastructure already to advertise these types of programs and put them on,” she notes, while the governmental entities have expertise they can share with the participants. At the same time, each organization can promote the activity, potentially increasing turnout.

For the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District, participation in the Water Steward program offered a way to increase its public visibility. “We're a bit removed from our customer base, because we serve 26 different communities in the Madison area,” Jones says. “Our direct customers are actually the municipalities and the sanitary districts themselves, rather than individual homes and businesses. So, we don't necessarily have the name recognition or the built-up credibility as messengers as other entities in the community have.”

“Inherently, one of the benefits of having a program like this is giving the community an opportunity to connect directly with representatives of your utility,” Jones says. “It’s a really important gesture to make yourself available.”

Meeting with individuals and answering their questions help to establish a level of familiarity and trust with the public that governmental agencies do not alway enjoy, Jones says. “You're really establishing yourself as a resource and a partner and a part of the community rather than this kind of mysterious utility.”