Five years ago, the U.S. Water Alliance announced its intention to create a national water prize "to recognize achievement and inspire action for water sustainability." Since then, the U.S. Water Prize has become a coveted badge of honor, recognizing incredible water management success stories realized through partnerships, innovation, and a lot of hard work.
"The U.S. Water Alliance strives to recognize people who are pulling all of us in the water sector beyond maybe where our comfort zone was," said Tracy Mehan, interim president of the U.S. Water Alliance. "The winners of the U.S. Water Prize are showing us how we can do things differently, better, and more efficiently with regard to the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of all the waters of the United States."
When the U.S. Water Prize was first awarded in 2011, then-president of the U.S. Water Alliance Ben Grumbles described the winners as a reflection of "the diversity of America" and as shining examples "for innovating, integrating, and collaborating ... to sustain America's most precious liquid asset."
Those words are just as true today, as three new champions of water sustainability are recognized for their inspiring efforts.
For its Water Purification Demonstration Project, the City of San Diego Public Utilities Department is being recognized as a trailblazer in the field of water reuse. Standards for potable reuse across the country will undoubtedly be shaped by the findings from the Demonstration Project.
"This is really an example of a movement that we're seeing across the country more and more," said Mehan. "In water-stretched areas like California, we've got to use these [water reuse] technologies in a way that allows us to protect the environment and also provide adequate supplies for our growing populations." San Diego has brought to bear the best water reuse and recycling technologies to do just that.
The Electric Power Research Institute is being recognized this year for establishing the Ohio River Basin Trading Project, a scientifically-based approach for designing and developing markets for nutrient reduction credits to help improve water quality in the region.
"This is a water quality trading program at scale on a major watershed," said Mehan. "The power companies participating in this effort [are] approaching it in a way that allows payment to farmers to do best management practices and generate credits. So it's a win-win."
And finally, the Coca-Cola Company is being honored for its outstanding efforts toward water neutrality. By 2020, the company intends to return to communities -- and nature -- the amount of water used in their finished beverages. So far Coca-Cola has replenished more than 60 percent of its total beverage volume in North America.
"It's really quite remarkable," said Mehan, "and a great example of corporate stewardship that's also integrated with a business plan in terms of their total program."
Of this years winners, Mehan noted that, while each is outstanding in their own realms, they are also "models of new, innovative, and thoughtful approaches to water and they're emblematic of the best that we see in the water sector."
Angela Godwin
Chief Editor, WaterWorld
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