Region 7 Water

November 13-14, 2007

EPA Regions 5 and 7 hosted a Sustainable Water Infrastructure Forum in St. Louis on November 13 and 14, 2007, assisted by Southern Illinois University (Edwardsville Campus). To obtain a CD of the Forum proceedings, which includes a video portal link, please contact Ruben McCullers, Environmental Scientist, EPA Region 7.

About 150 attendees learned about sustainable water infrastructure efforts at the forum. Attendees represented academia, utilities, states, EPA, consulting engineers, and interrelated organizations such as the National Rural Water Association, American Water Works Association, and Water Environment Federation.

The attendees engaged with fellow participants and heard from national experts on the problems and challenges concerning our nation's aging infrastructure, providing input to EPA about ways to reduce these problems. Developing innovative, market-based, and sustainable solutions for water infrastructure financing and management is a high priority for EPA.

Applying the forum's valuable information, EPA Regions 5 and 7 will develop a long-term program that can effectively promote the development of sustainable water infrastructure.

Attendees participated in one of the following discussion "tracks," enabling smaller group interactions:

1. Developing new and innovative technical solutions, and advancing beneficial solutions into practice
2. Extending the life of your utility through management systems approaches
3. Reducing utilities' future capital costs
4. Sustainability solutions for the small utility

Each track session was split into three parts, designed to:

• Identify the problems, needs, or challenges related to sustainable water infrastructure
• Identify pathways to progress
• Identify ways to reduce the extent of the current problems