Armed with funding recently provided by the Water Research Foundation (WRF), the architecture, engineering, and construction design firm HDR is leading the development of a One Water Planning guidance document aimed at helping water sector utilities better implement integrated water approaches.
Multiple participants
Begun this past July 15, the project is titled “Navigating One Water Planning through Municipal Water Programs: Meeting Multiple Objectives and Regulatory Challenges.” Designated by WRF as its Project #5175, the effort is being led by principal investigator Trent Stober, HDR’s utility management services director.
“The research will help the water sector with a One Water Planning guidance document for utilities to improve strategies across all phases of the urban hydrologic cycle,” according to a September 8 news release from HDR. “In addition, this project will develop a holistic decision framework to help utilities choose and prioritize interconnected projects and initiatives.”
The research team includes Mazdak Arabi and Sybil Sharvelle from Colorado State University’s One Water Solutions Institute, Jennifer Biddle from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and 30 participating utilities in the U.S. and Canada (see map).
“Our participating utilities will be key members of our research team to ensure that the One Water framework meets the needs of today’s utilities,” Stober says. The 30 utilities “vary significantly in geography, size, institutional structure, customer demographics, and water utility sectors,” he says. “These partners cover virtually all U.S. regions and Ontario to leverage the diverse drivers created by differing climate, watershed/supply characteristics, and socioeconomic impacts.” The goal is to recruit additional utility participants for the project, Stober says.
Providing oversight for the effort is a Project Advisory Committee that includes utility representation from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the City of Westminster, Colorado, the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, and York Region, a regional municipality in Ontario, Canada. The Committee also includes representatives from regulatory agencies, academia, and the consulting sector.
Map depicting the participating utilities. (Not shown is the Central Contra Costa Sanitation District, which recently joined the project.) Photo Credit: HDR
Tailored strategies
Ultimately, the project aims to help utilities manage competing priorities as they seek to adopt One Water approaches. “The overall goal of this research is to provide a One Water decision-support framework that municipal water utilities can tailor to develop planning strategies that address multiple regulatory requirements, utility-specific drivers, regional challenges, and institutional structures,” Stober says.
“Our research approach starts with developing the project vision through engagement with our utility partners and the Project Advisory Committee, which will inform our literature review and the One Water framework,” Stober says. “Robust water sector engagement will also shape the framework to understand the challenges, perspectives, and key success factors for developing and implementing One Water strategies.”
In addition to working with the participating utilities, the project team will engage with federal and state regulatory agencies, water sector associations, and potential One Water partners, such as agricultural producers, watershed organizations, and academia, Stober says.
“The research will include an update to WRF’s Clean Water Act Use Attainability Analysis guidance that utilities can apply to wastewater and stormwater programs with a focus on meeting the Clean Water Act’s fishable/swimmable goal,” Stober says. This research “will dovetail with” HDR’s ongoing WRF Project #5196, “One Water Program Management: A Knowledge Base and Guidance Manual,” he notes.
Begun in October 2022 and to be completed in 2025, Project #5196 “will demonstrate the benefits of a programmatic approach and provide the water industry with a standardized and adaptable framework, along with tools, to help address the nation’s pressing water infrastructure renewal needs,” according to the project description on WRF’s website.
“These two research projects will provide utilities with research to guide One Water planning through program delivery,” Stober says.
Goals for the guidance
As for the end product of the project, the planning guidance “will include ‘fit-for-purpose’ approaches and decision-making frameworks that are informed by community-specific regulatory, environmental, equity, and capital objectives,” Stober says. “The One Water planning guidance will include approaches for synergistic water program investments and watershed management efforts that address interconnected Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act regulatory requirements while achieving broad community benefits.”
At the same time, the planning guidance “will outline an array of implementable holistic strategies that support regulatory compliance, consider environmental co-benefits and tradeoffs, and coordinate municipal investments to enhance return,” Stober says. “The research will include a thorough review of and potential One Water strategies to meet multiple regulatory challenges, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), nutrients, wet weather discharges, and Lead and Copper Rule revision. The One Water framework will also include decision-making processes to help utilities prioritize investments through multiple approaches that demonstrate the value of investments to communities and customers.”
To be completed in 2026, Project #5175 is expected to cost nearly $752,000, of which $200,000 has been provided by WRF. The remainder of the project funding will take the form of cost sharing and in-kind support from HDR and the participating utilities, Stober says. “HDR’s cost share will cover additional project support for the HDR research team, while the utility partner in-kind support will include their participation in workshops and contribution of work products that will help serve as case studies for the water sector,” he notes.
Upon completion of the project, the final research products will be made publicly available by WRF.