Sustainable Water Sector Systems

Water: Sustainable Infrastructure

You are here: Water

Water Infrastructure

Sustainable Infrastructure

Managing for Sustainable Water Systems

Effective utility management practices are the foundation for building and sustaining the technical, managerial and financial capacity of the drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems that make up the water sector. While infrastructure sustainability is a major part of this challenge, management practices must address all aspects of a system’s operations and maintenance for it to be on a path to sustainability.

EPA’s efforts to promote and maintain sustainable water systems are anchored in two widely accepted management frameworks:

Effective Utility Management Initiative: Supported by the EPA and professional associations across the sector, this initiative is based around the "Ten Attributes of Effectively Managed Water Sector Utilities" and the Effective Utility Management Primer (PDF) (52 pp, 3.5MB, About PDF, which take a broad look at all aspects of water sector system sustainability, from product quality to customer satisfaction. The attributes primer provides a common framework for water sector systems to assess their strengths and areas for improvement, set priorities and measure progress through a process of continual improvement leading to long-term sustainability.

The Safe Drinking Water Act’s (SDWA) Capacity Development Program: This state program emphasizes assisting public water systems in acquiring and maintaining their technical, financial and managerial capacity to plan for, achieve and continually provide safe drinking water and ensure long-term sustainability.

While the existing Effective Utility Management (EUM) tools focus on outcomes water-sector utilities should strive to achieve, there also is a need to demonstrate how other well-accepted tools can help utilities, improve efficiency, reduce waste in their operations, and promote utility sustainability. One set of tools involves the use of Lean techniques. Lean is a business improvement approach focused on eliminating non-value added activity or "waste" using practical, implementation-based methods. Lean can help utilities achieve the outcomes embodied in the EUM Attributes. EPA has developed a Resource Guide to Effective Utility Management and Lean (PDF) (106 pp, 2.8MB, About PDF) based on input and examples from several utilities involved in both EUM and Lean.The guide is intended to be a bridging document that explains how these two important and complementary approaches can be used by utilities to reduce waste and improve overall efficiency and effectiveness. In November 2012, EPA also hosted a webinar on Effective Utility Management and Lean at Water-Sector Utilities.

EPA is working with our partners in a number of areas that support the broader sustainability of water sector systems in line with these frameworks. Explore the links below to get more information about:

Planning for Sustainable Water Systems

Effective planning is essential for water and wastewater systems to manage their operations and infrastructure and ensure the sustainability of the communities they serve. In recognition, EPA issued Planning for Sustainability: A Handbook for Water and Wastewater Utilities (PDF) (75 pp, 926K, About PDF). The handbook describes a number of steps utilities can undertake to enhance their planning processes to ensure that water utilities are sustainably managed using cost-effective life cycle analysis.

Developed after extensive consultation and input from utilities, states, and other stakeholders, EPA believes utilities that incorporate sustainability considerations into planning consistent with the steps in this handbook will realize many benefits because they will be able to better:

Optimize environmental, economic, and social benefits by setting goals and selecting projects through a transparent and inclusive process with the community;
Consistently assess a range of alternatives that address both utility and community goals; and
Enhance the long-term technical, financial, and managerial capacity of the utility.

Planning for Sustainability Webcast Series for Water and Wastewater Utilities

Effective planning is essential for utilities to sustainably manage their operations and ensure that water infrastructure investments are cost effective over their life cycle, resource efficient, and support other relevant community sustainability goals. EPA is hosting a series of webinars built around the core elements of its 2012 handbook, "Planning for Sustainability: A Handbook for Water and Wastewater Utilities" (PDF) (75 pp, 926K, About PDF).

Planning for Sustainability for Water and Wastewater Utilities: The first webinar in the series, hosted on June 12, 2012, provided an introduction for water and wastewater utilities on approaches for incorporating sustainability considerations into planning based on the EPA publication, Planning for Sustainability: A Handbook for Water and Wastewater Utilities

Community Consultation for Sustainability Planning: The second webinar in the series, hosted on September 13, 2012, was built around the core elements of the Planning for Sustainability Handbook. This webcast focused on how utilities can engage with various stakeholders in the community to establish sustainability goals that reflect utility and community priorities. Copies of the presentations from that webinar are listed below: