Topic: water quality

RELEASE: New Mapping Tool Provides Unprecedented Ability to Assess Water Risk

Lauren Zelin — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 22:08:10 -0500

Aqueduct provides companies with comprehensive, high-resolution picture of water risks worldwide.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) today launched a new online tool that maps water risk worldwide based on the most current, highest resolution data available. Companies, investors, and governments can use the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas to see how water stress will affect operations locally and globally, and help prioritize investments that will increase water security.

The online tool was developed by WRI, working with founding members of the Aqueduct Alliance, GE and Goldman Sachs, as well as Skoll Global Threats Fund, Shell, Bloomberg, Talisman Energy, Dow, United Technologies (UTC), DuPont, John Deere, Veolia Water, and the Dutch and Swedish governments.

The Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas is a customizable global map, based on 12 indicators of physical, regulatory, and reputational risk. In a user-friendly way, companies can now evaluate how water stress, flood occurrence, access to water, drought, and other issues may affect operations. Additionally, the global map can be tailored specifically for nine water-intense industry sectors - from oil and gas, to agriculture, to chemicals.

“Recent history is littered with companies that failed to anticipate emerging threats. Water scarcity is one such threat. Thankfully, forward-thinking business leaders are starting to get it. They understand that water risk is one of the top issues that they face,” said Andrew Steer, President, World Resources Institute. “This new platform will provide companies with comprehensive, high-resolution tools to measure water risk. It gives them an unprecedented ability to understand and better manage these risks.”

Companies have already been using earlier versions of the Aqueduct tool to understand how their operations and supply chains may be exposed to water risk. For example:

McDonalds has asked 353 of its global suppliers’ facilities to use Aqueduct to assess their local water risk;
Procter & Gamble, Owens-Corning, and AU Optronics have used Aqueduct to understand how local water supply, quality, and other risk factors may affect their global facilities, and to prioritize water efficiency and other investments;
Bank of America Merrill Lynch used Aqueduct to inform investors about water risks and opportunities in a recently released research report; and
Companies used Aqueduct to disclose and report on external water risk in the Carbon Disclosure Project’s (CDP) 2012 Global Water Report.

“Aqueduct’s global water risk map provides an innovative tool and important step forward in understanding critical water issues,” said Kyung-Ah Park, Head of the Environmental Markets Group at Goldman Sachs. “Assessing risk is challenging, and even more so with complex issues like water. Aqueduct provides a much more complete picture of the water issues affecting business globally than we’ve had before.”

Through the Atlas, users can plot the locations that matter most to them – from facilities, to suppliers, to potential new markets or proposed power plants – and compare those locations’ potential exposure to water stress and risk. They can also review maps of individual indicators, such as seasonal variability, which may be highly important to their operations.

“GE knows first-hand that water scarcity is a major challenge in many parts of the world,” said Heiner Markhoff, President and CEO of GE Water. “We’re very pleased that Aqueduct’s new global water risk maps will enhance understanding of these risks in ways that enable society to address them more effectively.”

The release of the global Water Risk Atlas is the culmination of a three-year effort by WRI to create a peer-reviewed and robust methodology for mapping complex water security around the world.

“Aqueduct’s global water risk mapping information is a valuable tool for understanding and addressing the pressing global threat of water security,” said Sylvia Lee, Water Manager, Skoll Global Threats Fund. “We understand that water is not just an environmental issue, but a real and substantial risk to communities, economies, and businesses. The new global water risk maps make it easier than ever to research and understand where in the world these risks are greatest, and where action is most needed.”

On Thursday January 31, WRI is hosting a public webinar to showcase the new Aqueduct water risk mapping tool – see information below.

On February 8, water experts from leading companies will participate in the “Water: Emerging Risks and Opportunities Summit” co-hosted by GE Power & Water, Goldman Sachs, and WRI at Goldman Sachs headquarters in New York City. For more information, contact Kevin Smith from Goldman Sachs at kevin.m.smith@gs.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE

Aqueduct is holding a webinar at 11:00AM ET on Thursday January 31 to introduce the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas. To register, visit http://www.wri.org/event/2013/01/webinar-wris-aqueduct-global-water-risk-mapping-tool.

ADVISORY: WRI Experts to Speak at Annual Conference on Ecosystem Services in Ft Lauderdale

James Anderson — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:11:03 -0500

Experts from the World Resources Institute will be joining leaders from business, government, and environment communities at the annual ACES and Ecosystems Markets 2012 Summit. The summit will take place from December 10 – 14 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

The goal of the summit is advance ecosystem services science and practice in conservation, restoration, resource management, and development decisions. It is being organized by the University of Florida and sponsored by the U.S. EPA, U.S. Forest Service, American Forest Foundation, World Resources Institute, and others.

WRI experts will discuss ecosystems-for-water programs, coastal ecosystem evaluations in the Caribbean, and processes for incorporating ecosystem services into public and private decision making.

Ecosystem goods and services – like freshwater, fiber, food, flood control, water purification and waste treatment – provide important benefits to business and society. Improving how ecosystem services are incorporated into decision making impacts ecosystems and the quantity, quality and profitability of the benefits they provide.

Full Agenda: http://www.conference.ifas.ufl.edu/aces/glance.html

WRI Experts available for interviews:

Craig Hanson, Director, People and Ecosystems Program

Janet Ranganathan, Vice President, Science and Research

Lauretta Burke, Senior Associate, Coral Reefs Initiative

Todd Gartner, Senior Associate, Conservation Incentives and Markets

For more information, please contact:
James Anderson, Press Officer, World Resources Institute, janderson@wri.org, (202) 729-7608

Shale Gas

Kevin Lustig — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:10:56 -0500

WRI is providing insight into this issue by:

Creating guidance on how to define the life cycle of shale gas projects, in order to better assess their impacts
Studying how shale gas development in China affects the energy picture in the U.S. and internationally
Taking a detailed look at how we produce and consume energy in U.S. states and regions
Assessing the risk to water resources posed by shale gas development

Shale gas is a game-changer for global energy supply. It is already transforming the U.S. energy outlook (see figure below), and is expected to deliver over 40% of domestic gas production by 2025. Opinion is bitterly divided, however, over the environmental risks and benefits of this abundant new source of energy – so much so, that the different sides struggle to agree even on basic facts. The debate is raging over two key issues – on-the-ground impacts to water, air, communities, land use, wildlife, and habitats; and the broader energy and global warming implications of developing shale gas.

Upcoming Event
April 4, 2013
Launch of a new WRI working paper Clearing the Air: Reducing Upstream Greenhouse Gas Emissions from U.S. Natural Gas Systems

Sustainable Cities Initiative

Christine Potochny — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 16:13:34 -0400

In October 2011, WRI launched a five-year global initiative to advance the progress of building environmentally sustainable and livable cities in China, India, and Brazil. We intend to develop low-carbon city models and pathways for environmentally sustainable urbanization, by partnering with four urban centers to increase energy efficiency, curb greenhouse gas emissions, and improve water quality, urban mobility and land use.

The Challenges of Rapid Urbanization

China, India, and Brazil are among the world’s most rapidly urbanizing nations. In China, experts predict that by 2030 more than 70 percent of its people will live in cities, and that 221 cities will have at least one million residents. In India and Brazil, urban growth is explosive, expanding existing cities and creating new ones. In all three nations, cities have the potential to lift millions of people out of poverty and become powerful engines for social progress.

Rapid urbanization, however, poses substantial challenges. Poorly-planned, sprawling cities have the potential to undermine efforts to sustain economic growth, improve energy efficiency, curb greenhouse gas emissions, and secure clean water supplies. Although China, India, and Brazil are rethinking their approach to urban growth to prevent such setbacks, the leaders of many growing cities lack the training and tools needed to translate concerns into practical, cost-effective action. As a result, these cities risk making poorly-informed development decisions that will have long-lasting consequences.

Recent developments suggest that the time is ripe for meaningful action. In China, urbanization and sustainability issues feature prominently in the national government’s new 12th Five Year Plan, and cities will be required to meet new environmental targets. In India, the world’s fourth largest economy, a growing middle class is demanding better planned, more livable cities. In Brazil, the government has launched a major initiative to fundamentally remake major cities, spurred in part by its commitment to host the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics.

Project Objectives

Our objective is to create “blueprints” or low carbon plans for environmentally-sustainable and livable cities that we will use, with selected partner cities in China, India, and Brazil, to catalyze and help implement high-impact demonstration projects. We will then use a targeted outreach effort to spread and scale-up lessons learned to other growing cities. Our overarching strategy for replication is to leverage WRI’s existing platforms in each country. These include pioneering work in China on greenhouse gas inventories and low carbon planning, and working through EMBARQ (WRI’s Center for Sustainable Transport) on urban transport and land use issues. National networks of cities, international associations, and major conferences will also be established to provide routes for delivering knowledge to a wide variety of stakeholders in highly communicative, interactive formats.

Project Activities

This Sustainable Cities Initiative has three main activities over the course of five years (2011-2016).

These activities are taking place simultaneously, in regards to the specific needs and conditions in each country.

Blueprints for Environmentally Smarter Growth

We’ve identified key steps toward addressing climate, water, land use and mobility challenges in ways that: a) maximize economic efficiency and social benefits;
b) minimize sprawl and environmental damage; and
c) position the city to become a national and international model for sustainability.

Demonstration Projects

Moving from blueprints to action, WRI has begun to catalyze large, high-profile and integrated projects that address more than one goal. Illustrative demonstration projects include enabling a city to meet its carbon emissions-reduction targets; integrating development, transportation and pollution-reduction; and improving water quality and quantity.

Spreading Success to other Emerging Cities

WRI and its partners will pursue aggressive and targeted communications efforts to highlight the benefits of following new, smarter paths to urban growth among decision-makers in dozens of countries.

MEDIA ADVISORY: 4th Annual Ecosystem Markets Conference - Making Ecosystems Work

Lauren Zelin — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:18:28 -0400

Experts and innovators meet to chart the future of ecosystem conservation

The World Resources Institute (WRI) and the American Forest Foundation (AFF) co-host the 4th annual Ecosystem Markets Conference in Madison, Wisconsin, June 29 – July 1, 2011. Hundreds of experts, innovators, land owners, government officials, investors and academics will discuss how to make ecosystem markets work to conserve natural resources; followed by a field trip through Aldo Leopold’s backyard to see ecosystem services in action.

At a time when state and federal budgets for conservation are dwindling, ecosystems are being degraded and threats to natural resources are increasing, more market-driven solutions are necessary to open the next chapter in conservation. Through ecosystem markets, the many benefits that well-managed lands provide, such as clean water and wildlife habitat, are assigned a value that results in payments to landowners for providing these services. This win-win for the public and landowners is necessary to protect the planet’s natural resources.

The 2011 conference theme “Ecosystem Markets: Making Them Work” underscores the need for innovative thinking to bridge the gap between ecosystem market potential and reality. Participants will gather for two days of open-format meetings on topics including payments to landowners, policy and ethics, private investment, water quality, bioenergy, and more.

The conference will open with a video address by Harris Sherman, Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Senior representatives from the host organizations along with ecosystem services experts from around the world will participate in the conference and will be available for interviews.

What:
4th Annual Ecosystem Markets Conference. Website: http://ecomarketconference.com/

When:
June 29-30, 2011, conference sessions
July 1, 2011, field trip to working ecosystems and Aldo Leopold’s shack

Where:
The Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club
1 W. Dayton Street, Madison, WI
(Free parking is provided for our conference group)

Media Highlights:

Wednesday, June 29, 2011
* 8:15 a.m. – Welcome and video address by Harris Sherman, Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment, U.S. Department of Agriculture
* 8:35 a.m. – Plenary Session 1: The Current State of Ecosystem Markets
* 10:20 a.m. – Plenary Session 2: Policies to Support Ecosystem Services and Markets
* 12:40 p.m. – Lunch and preview of Green Fire documentary, hosted by the Aldo Leopold Foundation and followed by a Q&A session

Friday, July 1, 2011
* 8:00 a.m. – Field trip; See below for details. * Experts available for interviews during the tour

For the full conference agenda, visit http://ecomarketconference.com/agenda/.

RSVP and Media Requests:

Amanda Cooke | AFF | ACooke@forestfoundation.org | 202-463-2731
Lauren Cole | WRI | LCole@wri.org | 202-729-7736

Follow the Twitter conversation - #ecomarkets2011

Field Trip Information - PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

What:
Tour the Leopold family shack and farm, and see sites conserved for ecosystem services through public/private partnerships, including the Leopold Waterfowl Production Area, Baraboo Oak Street dam removal site, and the Leopold Memorial Reserve constructed wetland. Detailed agenda: http://ecomarketconference.com/field-trip/.

When:
July 1, 2011 from 8:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Where:
Meet at the Madison Concourse Hotel for bus departure.

Who:
Experts from WRI, AFF and other conference attendees will be available for interviews and photo opportunities during the Field Trip. Please contact Amanda Cooke or Lauren Cole to RSVP.

Thanks to the Aldo Leopold Foundation and the Sand County Foundation for their generous assistance in hosting and organizing the field trip.

China Needs Comprehensive and Cost-effective Strategies to Address Water Pollution

Lijin Zhong — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:38:12 -0400

This post originally appeared on The Asia Water Project website, and is reposted with permission.

China has become famous in recent years for its double-digit annual economic growth and rapid urbanization. Unfortunately, this economic success story is paired with serious environmental degradation, especially the pollution of China’s streams, rivers, lakes, and coastal areas. China suffers from growing shortages of fresh water resources and can ill-afford to have its lakes and rivers rendered unavailable for use because they are too polluted. Water pollution takes an economic toll as well; the World Bank has estimated that the overall cost of water scarcity caused by water pollution amounts to about one percent of Gross Domestic Product.¹ Water pollution is a multi-faceted problem that must be addressed with comprehensive strategies. While China has made great progress in controlling some forms of water pollution, it is now at the point where new, more holistic strategies are needed.

Water Pollution Control Strategies in China

Water pollution is not a simple problem. There are different types of pollutants and a variety of sources. The most important pollutants that affect water quality can be divided into five main categories. These categories, and their impacts on water quality, are:

Oxygen-demanding substances — Untreated sewage contains high concentrations of organic matter and when it is discharged to a stream or a lake, the natural processes of decay use oxygen and can deplete the oxygen levels in the water body, threatening fish and other aquatic organisms that need oxygen to survive.
Toxic substances — Heavy metals such as mercury and lead are toxic to aquatic organisms, as are a wide variety of chemical compounds. The discharge of toxic substances to surface waters can not only harm stream life, but also humans who use the water for drinking or as a source of fish or other aquatic organisms. Untreated industrial wastewater frequently contains high levels of toxic substances.
Bacteria and pathogens — Municipal sewage and runoff from agriculture can contain high levels of bacteria, viruses, and other organisms that cause human diseases. Lakes contaminated with the pathogens can cause widespread and serious outbreaks of deadly water-borne diseases such as cholera.
Nitrogen and phosphorus — Nitrogen and phosphorus are nutrients that all living things need. When excess nitrogen and phosphorus pollution enters surface water bodies, it can result in greatly increased algae growth. These algae blooms, such as the ones that occurred in Tai Lake in 2007² and Jiaozhou Bay in Qingdao in 2008³, have many harmful effects. The most serious one is that when the masses of algae die, their subsequent decay consumes large quantities of oxygen, causing oxygen levels to fall to levels that are harmful to fish and other organisms. This nutrient enrichment can also promote the growth of algae species such as Cyanobacteria that are toxic to other organisms, sometimes including humans. Water bodies that are over-enriched with nutrients and suffer algae blooms are characterized as “eutrophic.”
Sediment and suspended solids — The discharge of sediments to streams can have a number of adverse effects, including covering stream and lake bottoms with silt and sand and smothering benthic organisms. In addition, sediments washed into water bodies can also contain organic matter, phosphorus, and toxic substances.

China’s strategy for controlling water pollution focused first on reducing the discharge of oxygen-demanding substances. The 11th Five Year Plan (FYP), adopted in 2006 contained binding targets for reducing these discharges. A water quality parameter known as Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) that measures the oxygen demand of the organic matter present in a water sample is used to quantify these discharges and the 11th FYP targets are expressed in terms of reducing COD discharges to receiving waters. Reducing the discharge of untreated municipal and industrial wastewater is the best way to reduce COD levels and China has made great progress in collecting and treating municipal wastewater over the past decades.⁴ To achieve the mandatory COD reduction targets, both Central and local governments have adopted a variety of measures, including closing heavily polluting companies, accelerating the construction of new wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), and upgrading existing WWTP to meet stricter effluent standards (Class I-A).⁵ These actions also served to greatly reduce the discharge of pathogens to surface waters.

While upgrading additional WWTPs to meet the higher effluent standards would result in additional reductions in COD discharges, it might be better to instead focus on increasing the rate of sewage collection and treatment. There is still a significant amount of uncollected and untreated wastewater being discharged by Chinese cities, and reducing the amount may be more cost-effective than upgrading existing WWTPs.

The Need for New Strategies to Improve Water Quality

Controlling COD and pathogens is not enough. The discharges of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediments are now the most serious sources of water pollution. These emissions must be reduced in order to improve water quality to acceptable levels. The central government has recognized this and has taken the first step by including ammonia reduction targets in the 12th Five Year Plan. Ammonia is a form of nitrogen that is mainly discharged from agricultural runoff, municipal and industrial wastewater, and emissions to the air from agricultural operations and factories. It exerts an oxygen demand and it can also be toxic to aquatic life, so reducing ammonia discharges will have many benefits. While it is an important first step, setting targets for ammonia reductions must be followed by reducing total nitrogen and total phosphorus discharges, as well as sediment discharges. Otherwise, few water bodies in China will meet the desired water quality standards.

Reducing nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment discharges will require new strategies and cannot be achieved merely through building or upgrading wastewater treatment plants or closing polluting factories. The main sources of nutrient pollution are nonpoint in nature, with agriculture being the biggest source. The costs of controlling nutrient pollution can be high and attention must be paid to the cost-effectiveness of all proposed measures. Comprehensive strategies that address all sources and sectors, and that consider cost-effectiveness in selecting reduction mechanisms, are needed.

Pollutant Reduction Opportunity Analysis

In order to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of various nutrient pollutant reduction opportunities, the World Resources Institute (WRI) is working with Tsinghua University, supported by ADM Capital Foundation, and other partners to carry out a specific project in municipalities within the Tai Lake basin. The goals are to develop an analytical approach and decision-support tool to help Chinese decision-makers select the cost-effective options to reduce ammonia, nitrogen and nutrient discharges into the water environment, thus helping to improve the water quality of lakes and rivers in China at lower cost and more effectively.

To do so, the team is creating a database of all available options for reducing ammonia, nitrogen, and phosphorus discharges; analyzing the reduction potential and cost of various options; identifying the key sources which also have the most potential for reductions; and prioritizing reductions by sources (sectors) and/or by reduction measures.

The pollution reduction opportunity analysis can provide a tool that can be used at both the local and national level to select cost-effective nutrient-reduction strategies. The Chinese governments need such a tool in order to make wise investment allocation decisions for nutrient reduction in the 12th FYP.

World Bank, 2007.Cost of Pollution in China, February 2007, Washington D.C.: the World Bank. ↩
In the summer of 2007, Wuxi Municipality shut down the municipal water supply due to a massive outbreak of blue-green algae in Tai Lake. Source: http://www.china.com.cn/city/txt/2007-06/05/content_8345713.htm ↩
In June 2008, the coastal zone of Qingdao was covered by green algae. This algae bloom threatened the sailing events of the Olympic Games. Source: http://cn.reuters.com/article/chinaNews/idCNChina-1532420080630 ↩
16 times as many WWTPs were constructed from 2000 to 2009 than were constructed in the previous ten year period. Source: Zhong L., 2010. Development of Chinese Wastewater Sector and Financial Mechanism for Water Environment Improvement, Post-doc Report, Beijing: Tsinghua University ↩
According to the National Standards on Pollutant Discharge from Urban Wastewater Treatment Plants (GB18918-2002), Class I-A effluent limits for ammonia and total nitrogen are 5 mg/L and 20 mg/L respectively, and 8 mg/L and 15 mg/L respectively for Class I-B. ↩

Comparison Tables of State Nutrient Trading Programs in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Maggie Barron — Wed, 18 May 2011 14:43:50 -0400

Over the last ten years, four Chesapeake Bay states—Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia—introduced nutrient trading programs to provide wastewater treatment plants with flexible options for meeting and maintaining permitted nutrient load limits. At least one other bay state, Delaware, also convened a work group to discuss developing such a program. Through these programs, wastewater treatment plants may purchase credits or offsets generated by other wastewater treatment plants or farms that reduce the nutrients they release to impaired water bodies. States are also exploring options for construction and urban stormwater programs to buy and sell credits and offsets.

To date, most credit transactions have occurred between buyers and sellers in the same state. Efforts to enact the recent Chesapeake Bay total maximum daily loads (TMDLs), however, could provide more opportunities for interaction by trading partners from different states. For example, regulated entities could seek credits or offsets from other states when the supply in their own state has been exhausted. In addition, entities in states that do not have a trading program could seek credits or offsets from entities in states that do have such a program.

Although the elements of many of the trading programs are identical or very similar, such as calculation platforms, included pollutants, and allowable participants, there are several differences as well. Examples are the time period that defines the life of a credit or offset and the varying types and values of trading ratios. States may need to address these and other differences before permitting more cross-state transactions. Regardless of how these differences are resolved, government regulations require credit transactions to be documented in the public record.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) has compiled into comparison tables the key design elements of the four state trading programs. The tables comprise a reference document for policymakers and others addressing the programs’ differences. These design elements are grouped into twelve categories based on their common characteristics. All the information is current as of May 2011; was paraphrased directly from the statute, regulation, policy, or guidance documents; and has been reviewed by trading experts. Nonetheless, this information will undoubtedly change as the states refine their strategies for implementing the TMDLs.

List of Tables

Legal Authorities and Guidance Documents
Pollutants and General Eligibility Requirements
Point Source Participation Requirements
Market Functionality
Baseline Requirements
Trading Ratios
Credit or Offset Restrictions
Certification and Verification Processes
Septic Hookup Provisions
Compliance and Enforcement Provisions
Risk Management Provisions
Registry Vehicles and Oversight Agencies

World Water Day: How Cities Cause “Dead Zones”

Mindy Selman — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:54:03 -0400

WRI identifies 13 new eutrophic areas around the world.

World Water Day this year focuses on “Water for Cities,” but what about water from cities? Urban runoff is one of the biggest threats to water quality around the world, with serious impacts on economies and people. However, it’s a problem that most cities are only starting to address.

Nutrient Pollution and Urban Runoff

Eutrophication occurs when water bodies are polluted with nutrients (for example, chemicals from fertilizer and sewage) that wash into surface waters from farms and urban areas that can cause oxygen depletion, fish kills, and ecosystem collapse. These are often called “dead zones” – because of the impact on fish and other sea life.

These issues can be especially problematic in urban areas. When it rains, nutrient pollution from lawns, pet waste, and vehicle exhaust washes into nearby waterways. This sewage (sometimes treated, sometimes not) is often discharged into nearby bodies of water.

Eutrophic Areas Around the World

In January, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) identified 534 low-oxygen “dead zones” and an additional 228 sites worldwide exhibiting signs of marine eutrophication. Thanks to responses from readers, WRI has since discovered 13 additional sites that are already eutrophic and in danger of becoming dead zones, bringing the total number of coastal areas around the world known to be suffering from nutrient pollution to 775.

Explore our Interactive Map of Eutrophication & Hypoxia

Some of the newly recorded sites have symptoms caused by urban runoff:

Halifax, Canada: Due to the growth of urban populations, Halifax Harbour and Bedford Basin receive high concentrations of urban waste that are high in nitrogen, phosphorus and other organic matter. Compounding the problem, municipal sewage is entering Bedford Basin from neighboring Bedford and Sackville, and a recent failure of the Halifax treatment plant resulted in high levels of fecal coliform pollution in the Inner Harbor. As a result, people can no longer safely swim or fish in certain areas. As the urban area around Halifax has grown since with 1960s, there have been more severe symptoms of eutrophication, including phytoplankton blooms and fish-kills.
Algeciras, Spain: The nearby Palmones River Estuary is located in a small area with a high population and a mixture of agricultural, urban and industrial land. Symptoms of eutrophication in the estuary have been observed since the early 1990’s, caused by high phosphorous concentrations from urban runoff, organic sewage from nearby towns, and waste from both a paper mill and nearby industrial park. Recent reports indicate the system is highly eutrophic and already many shellfish species have been diminished or depleted.

Development in the City of Algeciras exerts tremendous pressure on the bay. Photo credit: Wikimedia/Falconaumanni

In addition to sea water, fresh water sources often suffer eutrophication. In some extreme cases, local rivers and lakes can become so polluted by urban runoff that they are unsuitable for drinking water or even industrial uses. One striking example of this is Tai Lake in China, where urban runoff, combined with sewage and industrial discharge, led to a massive toxic blue-green algae bloom in May 2007. The bloom rendered the water in the lake too polluted for human, agricultural or industrial uses, and residents were forced to import water from other locations.

States and Cities Taking Action

Some regions are starting to take steps to reduce urban runoff and address wastewater issues:

In New Jersey, in an effort to reduce the nutrient load to Barnegat Bay, a bill was recently passed that will limit the nutrient content of lawn fertilizers in the state.
In Maryland, a June 2000 bill imposed strict standards for enhanced nutrient removal on all major wastewater treatment plants, in an effort to control pollution entering the Chesapeake Bay.
Around the Great Lakes, where eutrophication is a growing problem, New York, Michigan and other surrounding states have enacted phosphorus bans for detergents.
Some cities, like Portland, OR, have begun to manage urban runoff through the use of “green infrastructure” such as forest lands, rooftop gardens, rain gardens, wetlands, ponds and trees planted along stream banks to intercept runoff and cycle nutrients before it can reach surface waters.

WRI has also released the full data set (Excel, 975 Kb) available for 775 eutrophic sites worldwide. We hope that by making this data set widely available, we can help advance the critically important research and policy discussions to address the problems associated with eutrophication.

Protecting Forests to Protect Water in the U.S. South

Logan Yonavjak — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 17:21:59 -0500

When it comes to providing clean water, investments in forest conservation can save money.

Clean water doesn’t come cheap. Communities and businesses often rely on expensive water filtration infrastructure to ensure their clean water supplies. But what if they could save money by protecting upstream forests instead of building new, costly water treatment infrastructure?

The World Resources Institute (WRI) investigates this potential in Forests for Water: Exploring Payments for Watershed Services in the U.S. South. The issue brief provides an overview of how businesses and water utilities in the United States and Latin America are pursuing upstream forest conservation as a cost-effective means of ensuring clean water supplies. It also suggests how many of these approaches could be applicable in the southern United States.

Connecting Forests and Clean Water

Forests are often overlooked for the freshwater benefits they provide, but two-thirds of the nation’s water originates from forested lands in the United States. This water comes from precipitation that is filtered through forests, and much of it ends up in streams. In addition to filtering and purifying water, forests naturally regulate the timing and amount of water flows, which helps lessen flooding during heavy rainstorms. Forests also help curb erosion and prevent excess nutrients from fertilizer from entering nearby bodies of water.

Businesses and communities enjoy immense economic benefits from these forest “ecosystem services” (Figure 1). For example:

By naturally filtering water, forests can reduce drinking water treatment costs. For example, New York City famously saved billions of dollars in water filtration costs by conserving the forests and natural landscapes of the Catskills instead of paying for a new water filtration system.
By curbing erosion, forests can keep sediment and excess nutrients out of waterways. For instance forest buffers near streams can prevent nitrogen from entering waterways at approximately one-third of the cost per pound of nitrogen relative to wastewater treatment plant upgrades.
By filtering water through its porous soils, a forest can minimize wastewater treatment costs. For example, according to the Army Corps of Engineers a forest or forested wetland can filter water at approximately one-seventh of the cost per thousand gallons than can conventional wastewater treatment systems.

Figure 1: Green Infrastructure Can Be Less Expensive Than Gray Infrastructure: (Click to enlarge)

The Business Case for Conserving Forests for Clean Water

Public utilities, wastewater treatment plants, and governments are not the only ones that can benefit from conserving forests. Businesses that depend on a supply of clean water, such as beverage companies, power companies with hydroelectric facilities, microchip manufacturers, and housing developers may have a business case, as well.

However, these services that forests provide are threatened. In the southern United States, suburbanization has put forests, and thus the region’s clean water supply, at risk (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Watersheds of the Southern United States: (Click to enlarge)

One innovative approach for tackling this threat is to use “payments for watershed services.” Payments for watershed services provide landowners financial incentives to conserve, sustainably manage, and/or restore forests for one or more of the kinds of watershed services mentioned above. Such payments typically involve downstream beneficiaries paying upstream forest owners or forest managers.

There are three general types of payments for watershed services that companies and governments could take advantage of to cut costs:

voluntary payments to upstream landowners to reduce the cost of doing business;
payments to minimize the cost of meeting a regulation; and
payments made to generate public benefits like improved water quality.

“Payments for watershed services are a novel way to cost-effectively sustain clean water supplies while generating other benefits such as habitat conservation,” said Patricia Pineda, group vice president of philanthropy and the Toyota USA Foundation. “Innovative ideas like this one are the reason Toyota is proud to partner with WRI as part of the company’s commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative.”

From “Gray” Infrastructure to “Green” Infrastructure

Now that decision-makers are focusing sharply on budgets and cost-effectiveness, the time has come to see a forest for the water, not just for the trees.

To access this brief and other issue briefs in the Southern Forests for the Future Incentives Series, and to learn more about southern U.S. forests, visit: www.SeeSouthernForests.org. Developed by WRI with support from Toyota, this interactive site provides a wide range of information about southern forests, including current and historic satellite images that allow users to zoom in on areas of interest, overlay maps showing selected forest features and drivers of change, historic forest photos, and case studies of innovative approaches for sustaining forests in the region. To order free hard copies of this issue brief, and other briefs in the Southern Forests for the Future Incentives Series, please contact us.

Forests for Water: Exploring Payments for Watershed Services in the U.S. South

Maggie Barron — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:35:36 -0500

Summary

The forested watersheds of the southern United States provide a number of benefits—including water flow regulation, flood control, water purification, erosion control, and freshwater supply—to the region’s citizens, communities, and businesses.
The loss and degradation of forests can reduce their ability to provide these watershed-related ecosystem services.
Payments for watershed services provide landowners financial incentives to conserve, sustainably manage, and/or restore forests specifically to provide one or more watershed-related ecosystem services. Such payments typically involve downstream beneficiaries paying upstream forest owners or forest managers.
There are three general types of payments for watershed services: (1) voluntary payments by downstream entities to upstream landowners to reduce the costs of doing business, (2) payments made to minimize an entity’s cost of meeting a regulation, and (3) payments made to generate public benefits. A number of instances of each type of payment have been piloted in the United States, Latin America, and elsewhere.
Many payments for watershed services share a common trait: they are investments in “green infrastructure” instead of “gray infrastructure.” In other words, they are investments in forests and natural, open space instead of in human-engineered solutions to address water quantity or quality problems. In many instances, investments in green infrastructure can be more cost effective than investments in gray infrastructure.
Entities that may have a business case for making a payment for watershed services include beverage companies, power companies with hydroelectric facilities, manufacturers that rely on clean freshwater supplies for processing, housing developers, public and private wastewater treatment plants, city and county governments, drinking water utilities, and public departments of transportation, among others.
These entities can pursue a number of steps to capture the potential benefits of payments for watershed services, including identifying those forests most responsible for their clean water supplies, conducting economic analyses of green versus gray infrastructure, and exploring public/private financing partnerships.
Upstream landowners can pursue a number of steps to advance— and ultimately benefit from—payments for watershed services, including developing an understanding of the watershed-related ecosystem services their forests provide, actively looking for emerging payment opportunities, and collaborating with other landowners to achieve economies of scale when engaging beneficiaries of the services their forests provide.
This issue brief is intended as an introductory resource primarily for entities that depend upon stable supplies of clean freshwater in the southern United States and are looking for cost-effective approaches to sustain this supply. This brief also provides information to southern landowners interested in potential revenue streams generated by conservation and sustainable management of forests.

Watersheds of the Southern United States

Maggie Barron — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:38:48 -0500

In the Southern United States, the watersheds with the greatest ability to produce clean water and with the most consumers tend to be the forested watersheds of the east (top). But these are often the same watersheds upon which development pressure is greatest (bottom).

Forests and Water: Green Infrastructure Can Be Less Expensive Than Gray Infrastructure

Maggie Barron — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:32:41 -0500

Many payments for watershed services share a common trait: they are investments in “green infrastructure” instead of “gray infrastructure.” In other words, they are investments in forests instead of human-engineered solutions, concrete, and other technologies to maintain the ongoing provision of watershed services over time. For example, to meet drinking water quality standards implemented since the late 1980s, researchers expect that treatment plants across the United States will have to invest hundreds of billions in infrastructure (Dissmeyer 2000; Maxwell 2005). Green infrastructure investments could obviate the need for at least a portion of these expenditures. New York City, Bogotá, and other cities are using investments in forest conservation and restoration as a way to avoid the building of new water filtration plants to maintain clean water flows to the cities’ residents. In the Boston area, three watersheds received a filtration waiver, avoiding costs of about $200 million due to commitments to maintain upstream forest conditions (Barten et al. 1998). In a water quality trading program, a wastewater treatment plant could finance a landowner to restore riparian forests instead of investing in plant upgrades.

These investments in green infrastructure are designed to save money relative to investments in gray infrastructure. Note, however, that this figure’s estimates do not include the economic values of other, nonwatershed-related ecosystem services provided by green investments or the natural resource damages caused by gray infrastructure, such as the loss of fisheries associated with dams.

Coral Reefs of the World Classified by Threat from Watershed-based Pollution

Maggie Barron — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 12:39:46 -0500

Coral reefs are classified by estimated present threat from watershed-based pollution, which threatens more than 25 percent of reefs globally.

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Coral Reefs of the World Classified by Threat from Marine-based Pollution and Damage

Maggie Barron — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 12:36:27 -0500

Coral reefs are classified by estimated present threat from marine-based pollution and damage, which threatens approximately 10 percent of reefs globally.

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New Web-Based Map Tracks Marine "Dead Zones" Worldwide

Michael Oko — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:58:20 -0500

Research Identifies 530 Coastal “Dead Zones” and 228 Marine Eutrophic Sites

New research by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) identifies more than 530 low-oxygen “dead zones” and an additional 228 sites worldwide exhibiting signs of marine “eutrophication.” Eutrophication occurs when water bodies are over-fertilized by nutrients that are washed into surface waters from farms and urban areas.

Analysts at WRI and VIMS have compiled the information into a web-based “one-stop shop” that provides a global database and interactive map of affected areas, as well as links to articles, photos, and other resources. The website—“Eutrophication and Hypoxia: Nutrient Pollution in Coastal Waters”— is at www.wri.org/eutrophication.

“Until now, a lack of information and monitoring has been a major impediment to understanding the extent and impacts of ‘dead zones’ and eutrophication in coastal ecosystems,” said Mindy Selman, senior water quality analyst at WRI. “This website is an important step forward because it compiles the current information into a central location to raise awareness and offer solutions for controlling nutrient pollution.”

An important feature of the site is a comments section to solicit feedback from visitors, who will be encouraged to provide updates to the maps and databases drawing on their knowledge of local conditions.

The 530 areas and 228 sites together encompass more than 95,000 square miles, about the size of New Zealand. The largest dead zone in the United States, at the mouth of the Mississippi, covers more than 8,500 square miles, roughly the size of New Jersey. A large dead zone also underlies much of the main-stem of Chesapeake Bay, occupying about 40 percent of the Bay’s area and up to five percent of its volume each summer.

Professor Bob Diaz, who led the compilation of data at VIMS, said: “Over the last 50 years, problems related to over-fertilization of the sea and low dissolved oxygen have expanded to the point where large areas devoid of fish, shrimp, and crabs are common occurrences. These dead zones, or oxygen deserts, are very damaging to the environment and also to people that rely on the sea for their livelihood.”

Eutrophication and hypoxia— a scientific term for low-oxygen dead zones– often go hand-in-hand, as excessive nutrients fuel blooms of algae that, when they die and sink, provide a rich food source for bacteria. The bacteria, in turn, consume dissolved oxygen from surrounding waters, creating dead zones where fish cannot survive. Other impacts of eutrophication include damage to coral reefs, harmful algal blooms, and loss of biodiversity.

The partnership between WRI and VIMS stems from a 2007 WRI study of the main obstacles to effectively addressing eutrophication. The study concluded that a key obstacle is a lack of public awareness and understanding of the phenomenon and its impacts, causes, and extent. Eutrophication and dead zones are now a key stressor of marine ecosystems and rank with over-fishing, habitat loss, and harmful algal blooms as global environmental problems for marine life.

Diaz, who began monitoring the worldwide extent of eutrophication and dead zones in the mid-1990s, has published an ongoing list of hypoxic areas worldwide. He and WRI worked together on the new website to expand the list of dead zones as well as include coastal areas where symptoms of eutrophication (e.g., algal blooms) have been observed, but which lack the monitoring data to classify the system as hypoxic.

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The World Resources Institute (WRI) is an environmental think tank whose mission is to find practical ways to protect the earth andimprove people’s lives.

Chartered in 1940, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science is now among the largest marine research and education centers in the United States. VIMS has a three-part mission to conduct interdisciplinary research in coastal ocean and estuarine science, educate students and citizens, and provide advisory service to policy makers, industry, and the public. The School of Marine Science (SMS) at VIMS is the graduate school in marine science for the College of William & Mary.