Water Resource Asset Protection through Green Infrastructure Planning and Investment

1
Water Resource Asset Protection through Green
Infrastructure Planning and Investment

• Joseph A. Hankins
• The Conservation Fund Freshwater Institute
• 3rd Annual West Virginia Water Conference
• Emerging Water Issues Science and Solutions
• Stonewall Resort, West Virginia
• 28-29 October 2004

2
The Freshwater Institute

• The Freshwater Institute (FI) was initiated in
  1987 and is a program of The Conservation Fund
• FI projects provide demonstration of practices or
  develop technology that meets concern for
  environmental protection and the recognized need
  for fair return on investment

3
What is the value of clean water?

• We know the true value of water when the well
  runs dry.-
• Ben Franklin, from Poor Richards Almanac

4
What is the value of clean water?

• Freshwater is a strategic resource in a changing
  world
• Degradation of water resources leads to
  biological and cultural impoverishment and risks
  to human health and quality of life

5
What is the strategic value of clean water?
6
Water is a strategicAppalachian region resource
30-50 inches of annual precipitation
7
What is the strategic value of Appalachian
region water?

• Food and product exports can be virtual water

A board foot of cherry lumber or even seafood
protein like Arctic char, trout or shrimp
8
What is the strategic value of Appalachian
region water?

• Surrounding counties and metropolitan areas are
  restricting economic development due to water
  infrastructure limitations
• Less developed areas have the opportunity to
  create a sustainable advantage if resources are
  developed sustainably

9
Rural development pressure

• Average house prices in Jefferson county
  increased by 35 from Jan 2003 to Sept 2004, over
  3000 per month
• Eastern Panhandle counties have more than 30,000
  residential lots in the planning or permit
  pipeline

10
Green infrastructure is
the natural life support system an
interconnected network of waterways, wetlands,
woodlands, wildlife habitats and other natural
areas greenways, parks and other conservation
lands working farms, ranches and forests and
wilderness and other open spaces that support
native species, maintain natural ecological
process, sustain air and water resources and
contribute to health and quality of life for
communities and people
11

• Just as we must carefully plan for and invest in
  our capital infrastructure our roads and
  bridges and waterlines, we must invest in our
  environmental or green infrastructure our
  forests, wetlands, streams and rivers
• - Maryland Governor Parris Glendening, January
  1999

12
How is green infrastructure different from green
space protection?

• Green space is a nice to have amenity, green
  infrastructure is a must have natural life
  support system
• Green infrastructure emphasizes interconnected
  systems of natural areas and undeveloped spaces
  that are protected and managed for ecological
  benefits to people and the environment
• Green infrastructure implies something that must
  be actively maintained and at times restored

13
Use maps and models

• Geospatial frameworks are fundamental to
  decisions on conservation investments and
  restoration strategies
• Credible scientific data and watershed analyses
  are essential for effectiveness and to build
  public support
• Think beyond the community or state border

14
Water Resource Protection Values

• Water Quality Data
• Water Supply/ Public Drinking Water Intakes
• Flood Plain Protection
• Wetlands, Streams and Lakes
• Imperviousness
• Impaired Waterways (TMDLs)
• Contact Recreational Use

15
Chesapeake Bay Foundation and American Farmland
Trust 2004 report

• From 1990-1997 Maryland counties converted over
  10,000 acres per year to urban uses
• Between 1986 and 2000 the region lost nearly 44
  square miles per year of green space
• Found that in watersheds where impervious
  surfaces exceed 10 of the total, pollution
  increases and water quality, habitat and living
  resources are damaged

16
xxx

• xxx
• xxx

• Assessed the condition and status of the regions
  green spaces including both private and public
  conserved lands
• Documented zoning or ordinance protections and
  mapped impacts
• Suggested a coordinated green infrastructure
  network to protect the great green filter for
  Bay protection

17
Trust for Public Land 2004 report

• Makes the case that watershed management and land
  conservation are the critical first barrier in a
  multiple barrier approach to source water
  protection
• Finds that green infrastructure is a good capital
  investment for community environmental future and
  public health protection

18
Increased treatment costs

• Development in watershed and aquifer recharge
  lands result in increased treatment costs
• A study by TPL and AWWA of 27 water suppliers
  found that more forest cover in a source
  watershed, the lower the treatment costs.

• For every 10 percent increase in forest cover in
  the source area, treatment and chemical costs
  decreased by 20 per cent

19
New York City case study

• Water supply from 19 reservoirs and three
  controlled lakes
• Supplies 1.3 billion gpd from 2,000 sq mile
  watershed
• USEPA directives to develop and implement
  filtration was estimated to cost 6-8 billion,
  300 million annual costs, doubling water rates
• In early 1990s the city owned only 8 percent of
  the watershed

20
New York City case study

• In 1997 NYC enters into watershed protection
  agreement to protect the source water, committing
  1.2 billion over first ten years for watershed
  improvements and land acquisition
• Green infrastructure planning assesses 335,000
  acres for prioritization
• USEPA agrees to extend filtration avoidance for
  five years in 2002

21
New West Virginia land use, zoning and planning
bill

• Provides for the creation of consolidated metro,
  multi-county or regional planning efforts that
  could be the platform for coordinated water
  quality, quantity and source protection
• Requires that subdivision or land use ordinances
  support comprehensive plan objectives with
  tangible metrics

22

• Water supply sustainability
• Water quality
• Natural systems
• Planning and regional cooperation
• Education and Stewardship
• Recreational access

23
Regional water quality compacts

• Chesapeake Bay and the Tributary Strategy Plan
  for the Potomac headwaters
• ORSANCO and the Gulf of Mexico hypoxia events
• Downstream drivers

24
Regional water quality compacts

• Chesapeake Bay and the Tributary Strategy Plan
  for the Potomac headwaters
• ORSANCO and the Gulf of Mexico hypoxia events
• Downstream drivers

25
Can we convert the blame game to an economic and
environmental opportunity?

• View and assess our assets with a broader value
  concept
• Work to find the common ground where
  environmental stewardship and economic
  sustainability intersect

26
To live fully is to be engaged in the passions
of ones time Oliver Wendall Holmes