FIRST THINGS FIRST Drinking Water News and Information for America’s Small Communities Fall 2001 .Volume 1 . Issue 3 Sponsored by Rural Utilities Service Hilda Gay Legg . Administrator Deanna Plauché . Loan Specialist The Director’s Darrel Lipscomb . Loan Specialist N ational Drinking Water Clearinghouse The National Drinking Water Clearinghouse (NDWC) assists small Perspective communities by collecting, developing, and providing timely information relevant to drinking water issues. Established in 1991, the NDWC is funded by the Rural Utilities Service and is located at Sanjay Saxena West Virginia University. National Drinking Water Clearinghouse Director John L. Mori, Ph.D. Manager, National Environmental Services Center Sanjay Saxena . Director From time to time, we publish “theme Mark Kemp-Rye . Managing Editor issues” of On Tap. In the past, we’ve explored Julie Black . Graphic Designer topics such as conservation, the Safe Drinking Kathy Jesperson . Associate Editor Water Act, and community self help. Obviously, this sort of Jamie Knotts . Assistant Editor endeavor requires a great deal of foresight and planning. Michelle Moore . Promotions Editor Other times, though, a theme emerges as the stories Harriet Emerson . Senior Editor come together. That’s exactly what happened with this Vipin Bhardwaj . Technical Assistance Specialist issue. The idea of “smart growth” can not only be found in David Pask . Engineering Scientist Sheila Anderson . Administrative Associate the cover story, but as a concept—either implicit or explic- Lori Jennings . Administrative Associate it—in several other articles as well. Water rights and water as a valuable resource are also topics that appear in more O n Tap E ditorial Advisory Board than one article. Jerry Biberstine . senior environmental engineer, National Rural Water Association I’m pleased to welcome two new graphic designers to Rodney Coker . tribal utility consultant, the National Environmental Services Center team. Chris Indian Health Service Mark Coyne . associate professor, Metzgar joined us at the beginning of September. His techni- University of Kentucky cal drawings complement the latest Tech Brief, found in the Frank DeOrio . director of municipal utilities, center of this magazine. Chris will work primarily with the Auburn, NY Kevin Kundert . interactive training developer, National Environmental Training Center for Small Montana Water Resources Center Communities, one of our partner organizations. Zacharia M. Lahlou, Ph.D. civil and environmental engineer, Wiley & Wilson, Lynchburg,VA This is actually the second issue of On Tap featuring Lori B. Libby . senior project manager, design and artwork by Julie Black. Julie started work here in Center for Public Management and Regional Affairs, Miami University of Ohio May and will work on National Drinking Water Clearinghouse Babu Madabhushi, Ph.D. project engineer, publications. A warm welcome to both Chris and Julie. URS Corporation, Miami Springs, FL On a sad note: The terrible events of September 11, Dennis Mason . operations manager O&M Enterprises, Holden, Missouri 2001, occurred while we were finishing this issue of On Lee Michalsky . assistant professor, Tap. The assault on our country’s great cities takes its Alaska Training and Technical Assistance Center Lisa Raysby . water department manager, place among the darkest days in U.S. history. While we Peninsula Light Company are all touched by this catastrophe, we want to express Jay Rutherford,P.E. water supply division director, deep regret and sincere sympathy to those who lost Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation Peter Shanaghan . small systems coordinator, family, friends or co-workers in this national tragedy. EPA Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water To help communities protect their water systems Nelson Yarlott . chief plant operator, from terrorism and sabotage, we have placed a number Bellvue Water Treatment Plant, Greely, CO of useful documents and links on our Web site A r ticle Submissions (www.ndwc.wvu.edu). And, the Winter 2001-02 On Tap On Tap is a free quarterly publication. Articles, letters to the editor, news items, photographs, or other materials submitted for publi- will be a special counter-terrorism issue. cation are encouraged. Please address correspondence to: If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free Editor, Op n Ta , NDWC (800) 624-8301 to call me at (800) 624-8301 or send an e-mail to West Virginia University (304) 293-4191 [email protected] enjoy hearing your ideas and look PO Box 6064 (304) 293-3161 (Fax) Morgantown WV 26506-6064 www.ndwc.wvu.edu forward to learning ways that we may serve you better. Permission to quote from or reproduce articles in this publication is granted when due acknowledgement is given. Please send a copy of the publication in which information was used to the On Tap editor at the address above. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Rural Utilities Service, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recom- mendation for use. ISSN 1061-9291 Printed on Recyled Paper ® An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Institution On Tap . Fall 2001 . 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Departments Features News and Notes .................... 4 Water Wars 18 Whose water is it and why do Calendar .................................. 5 I need a permit to use it? Web Resources ...................... 8 23 Funding Water Projects Ask the Experts....................10 in the Mountain State Financial................................ 23 The West Virginia Infrastructure Q&A ........................................ 40 and Jobs Development Council Tech Trends .......................... 42 If the CCC Built It, 26 It’s Probably Still There Products................................ 44 Fun Time .............................. 48 Regulations 31 How in the world does EPA make them? Until Next Time .................. 50 The Odd Couple 36 The Nature Conservancy and EPA’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund When the nonprofit environmental group The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency teamed up to save a valuable California watershed, many people thought they made an odd pair. What they accomplished through collaboration is anything but odd. Smart Growth & Small CommunitiesSprawl Comes to Rural America 12 Once thought of as strictly a suburban problem, sprawl is now a feature of many small town and rural landscapes. More and more, though, communities are trying to manage and contain sprawl by adopting “smart growth”strategies. Drinking Water Storage Facilities ON THE COVER The cover art for this issue of After water leaves the treatment On Tap is by Kairi Frame, who plant but before it reaches the worked for the National Drinking Water Clearinghouse during 1999 customer, it must be adequately and 2000. Mr. Frame now lives and safely stored.This Tech Brief and works in Denver, Colorado. explores the various aspects of water storage. On Tap . Fall 2001 . 3 NEWS & NOTES Cost of Water Is Up in Selected Countries A survey conducted by a private energy and Countries surveyed and their average telecommunications consulting firm found the water price (in U.S. dollars), per cubic average price for water in the world increased meter included: by 3.8 percent over the past year. The survey, conducted by NUS Consulting 1. Germany, $1.52 Group, found the world price for water aver- 2. Denmark, $1.46 aged 76.4 cents per cubic meter (264 gallons). 3. United Kingdom, $1.11 The survey polls various local water prices in 4. The Netherlands, $0.98 14 countries located in North America, Europe, 5. France, $0.93 Africa, and Australia. 6. Belgium, $0.75 According to the survey, Germany led 7. Italy, $0.62 all nations with an average price of $1.52 8. Spain, $0.58 and South Africa had the lowest price at 9. Finland, $0.53 34 cents. Every country reported increased 10. United States, $0.52 costs for water with the exception of the 11. Sweden, $0.51 Netherlands who showed a decrease of 0.8 12. Australia, $0.48 percent in pricing over the past year. 13. Canada, $0.37 The U.S. was 10th on the survey with 14. South Africa, $0.34 an average price of 52 cents per cubic meter, according to the report. “We are For more information about finding that water pricing around the world this survey, write to NUS is increasing at a steady rate and all indica- Consulting Group, tions are that even larger increases are on International Reports and the horizon,” says Richard Soultanian, NUS Survey Division, One co-president. “Issues, such as scarcity of Maynard Drive, Park supply and improving water quality, are Ridge, coming to the forefront in most countries, and NJ, as such, prices are bound to dramatically increase to meet these challenges.” 07656. EPAReleases Capacity Development Reports Are you interested in what other states have “I believe that these reports will be of great done toward implementing the capacity develop- use to the states in better understanding the ment provisions of the 1996 Safe Drinking Water range of approaches taken by their peers,” says Act (SDWA) Amendments? If so, you’ll want to William Diamond, director of EPA’s Drinking read two new reports issued by the U.S. Water Protection Division. “As these reports doc- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ument, states have done much good work to The first, titled State Programs to Ensure date in the area of capacity development. Our Demonstration of Technical, Managerial, and future challenge is one of continuous improve- Financial Capacity of New Water Systems, ment and further enhancement of strategies to provides a detailed summary of each state’s achieve the public health protection objectives program, as well as appendix tables designed to of the SDWA.” help compare the various approaches different To order copies of these reports, write to states have taken. the National Service Center for Environmental The second, titled State Strategies to Publications, PO Box 42419, Cincinnati, OH, Assist Public Water Systems in Acquiring 45242-2419 or call (800) 490-9198.