Waterkeepers, Moonshot, Water and Climate

I was honored to offer comments during lunch at the Waterkeeper Alliance 25th Annual Meeting in Milwaukee focused on Water and Climate. I focused on four key themes.

1. Waterkeepers: What, Why and When. I honored and highlighted the essential role that the 300+ Waterkeepers play in safeguarding what needs to be done to protect water quality, why action is needed and when improvements need to be in place. Buttressed by one of the best citizen science networks on the planet, Waterkeepers deploy a full range of tools - from information sharing, to advocacy, to litigation when needed - to set a foundation for achievement of clean water.
2. Moonshot: How and How Much. Simply, does the utility have the funds to implement, maintain and operate whatever steps are needed, and b) does the utility have personnel who are trained to do the work needed. Moonshot experienced professionals are perfectly suited to help utilities with these challenges: how to achieve compliance obligations, and to help find the lowest cost solutions supported by the latest technologies (how much). In parallel, Moonshot works with utility personnel - management and operators, to ensure appropriate training is in place. As a national Environmental Finance Center selected by USEPA to help disadvantaged communities access federal and state funding, Moonshot can also help find funding to buttress local resources.
3. Water and Climate. Moonshot also often works with communities and utilities outside the compliance context. Based on our successful trusted peer-to-peer model, Moonshot personnel focus on energy use for the utility - typically the highest expense for any utility after personnel and debt service. For Toledo, for example, Moonshot personnel held workshops that persuaded the fine leaders of the utility to adopt a energy recovery approach to biosolid management. This step will save the utility money, generate clean baseload power, improve their resiliency, and reduce their carbon footprint. At Moonshot, we believe that every community and utility should be adopting clean energy projects.
4. Waterkeepers and Moonshot: Community Engagement. One of the many ways Moonshot can work with the Waterkeeper network is to both identify communities and utilities in need, and help build relationships with community and utility leaders. The Waterkeepers have fantastic networks in communities throughout the country and have a sense of communities that need to achieve improvements, but face funding and personnel limitations. That is the exact scenario that Moonshot is designed to support.