By Ken Kramer, Water Resources Chair, Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club
“One Water.” To some, the term may sound like a new low-calorie flavored water drink or the new name for a private water supply company. In the water world today, however, “One Water” is an approach to managing water resources in an integrated, equitable, and sustainable way.
Historically, local governments have handled wastewater treatment, water supply, flood management, and related environmental activities separately, dividing these responsibilities among different municipal or county departments and between cities and counties. Moreover, local government water programs have frequently benefitted some neighborhoods or communities more than others – low-income and/or people of color areas in particular often have been slighted. In addition, many water actions have been focused on short-term needs or reactive “fixes” rather than pro-actively planning and working to sustain adequate, affordable, and clean water supplies over the long term while reducing flood risks and maintaining healthy water ecosystems.
The “One Water” concept seeks to view and manage water more holistically than this historical approach. More local governments and water utilities around the United States are looking to incorporate elements of this integrated water management into their operations. This increasing level of interest was evident in September when the U. S. Water Alliance, a national organization with a diverse membership of water interests that has prepared a One Water Roadmap, held its annual One Water Summit in Austin, Texas.
The 2019 One Water Summit attracted approximately 900 attendees, including myself and representatives from numerous local citizen groups, water utilities, local governments, state agencies (Texas and other states), environmental groups, engineering companies, and water consultants, among others. The various attendees were part of 44 “delegations” reflecting different geographic areas, different professions, coalitions, issue areas, and philanthropic organizations.
The Houston Regional Delegation included water professionals, parks and recreation professionals, educators, planners, and nonprofit organization volunteers and professionals. The City of Houston, regional water authorities, and the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District were among the entities from the Greater Houston area represented at the One Water Summit. Among the delegates from the City of Houston was Marissa Aho, the City’s Chief Resiliency Officer, who is currently leading the development of Houston’s first Resiliency Plan.
The One Water Summit was held over three days and included peer dialogues, site visits (to, among others, San Marcos Springs, surface-aquifer caves in the region, Barton Springs, and Hill Country towns implementing headwaters and springs restoration efforts), issue “institutes,” plenary sessions, and concurrent sessions on a wide range of water topics: water reuse and resource recovery, green infrastructure, building climate resilience, urban flooding, and equity in water management, to name just a few. Attendees had enthusiastic reactions to the Summit and to the information and water success stories provided there.
That said, many sessions at the Summit illustrated the challenges of trying to manage water in a holistic manner, when water professionals over generations have been trained in very specific fields such as wastewater treatment, and when water services often have been viewed in isolation from other local government services and without adequate attention to diverse socioeconomic conditions in local populations. Indeed, in Texas, the only major city that has attempted a comprehensive One Water approach thus far is Austin, which recently completed its 100-year water plan known as Water Forward, and even supporters of this plan have characterized parts of it as aspirational.
Nevertheless, many important Texas water players, including the Cynthia and George Mitchell Family Foundation and the Texas Living Waters Project (National Wildlife Federation, the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, and regional partners such as Galveston Bay Foundation) are committed to putting One Water principles into practice in Texas. The Mitchell Foundation commissioned a report on Advancing One Water in Texas, released in 2018, that enumerated the benefits of adopting the One Water approach in Texas, the obstacles for doing so, and possible action areas for promoting the approach. The Texas Living Waters Project just produced a short document on “Ensuring One Water Delivers for Healthy Waterways,” emphasizing the need for One Water efforts to protect river flows to support healthy fish and wildlife and habitat.
Whether the One Water approach reaches its potential to integrate management of water and related resources in an equitable and sustainable manner throughout Texas (and the nation) remains to be seen. Along the path to achieve that goal, however, incremental milestones may be reached that will save Texas water customers and taxpayers money and maintain (and perhaps enhance) the quality of our lives and the water and other natural resources upon which our well-being depends.