Utilities large and small are beginning to take on the Water Resources Utility of the Future
(UTOF) mantle. Some are making it a guiding force that permeates their management
philosophy while others are doing so to the degree market forces and return on investment
dictate. All, however, can use the support of the federal policy to move in this direction. The
brief examples which follow illustrate the types of activities, which, if realized on a national
scale, would have profound benefits to the economy, the environment and public health.
EXAMPLES FROM COAST-TO-COAST OF THE
WATER RESOURCES UTILITY OF THE FUTURE
The
Ohio River Basin
serves as a model for
other watershed-based trading programs.
Launched in 2009 with some states joining as
recently as 2012, the project is a first-of-its-kind
interstate multi-credit trading program. At full
scale, it will become the world’s largest water
quality trading program, potentially creating
credit markets for 46 power plants, thousands
of wastewater facilities and other industries,
and up to 230,000 farmers.
The
East Bay Municipal Utility District
(EBMUD), California
, is blending community
food waste (e.g. fats, oils, and grease from local
restaurants and food waste from wineries and
farms) with their own biosolids to produce
enough methane-generated electricity to meet
their own energy demand and send excess to
the local grid. This 55,000 megawatt-hour/year
$31 million biogas project saves the utility $3
million a year in energy, and contributed to
EBMUD’s reduction of 13,300 metric tons of
carbon from its 2010 baseline.
The
Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage
District (MMSD), Wisconsin
has set strin-
gent, 25-year sustainability, cost reduction and
efficiency goals. MMSD promotes the future
use of green infrastructure, cost-effective wa-
tershed-based permitting and effluent trading,
renewable energy sources to meet 100% of
its energy needs, and reduction in its carbon
footprint by 90% from a 2005 baseline through
energy efficiency projects.
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