Transformation Begins with T

Happy Earth Day! Earlier this year, I participated in a panel discussion on how all of us, as a community of people interested in transforming how we manage water can operationalize a one-water approach to solve seemingly unsolvable water challenges. The discussion occurred during the Winter Conference of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) so the audience included some of the largest water treatment agencies in the country, many of them members of the WateReuse Association , and I wanted to deliver ideas that could be relatively easy to remember. 

We need to transform how we manage water, and we need new ways of thinking about managing water. The Colorado River is drying up threatening drinking water for millions of Americans and our ability to grow food and power the West. In the east, powerful storms and rising sea levels are wreaking havoc on natural and manmade systems. But there is just one water and many communities (and countries) that are successfully addressing their water challenges, are doing so by successfully implementing one-water systems. 

In my three-decade plus experience of working with communities to address environmental and social challenges, I’ve come to recognize some important characteristics present in transformational projects, and below is my take on them. I call them the eight Ts to Transformation:

1.      Tether a team: it is cliché but true: If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go with others. Teaming, partnering and collaborating is the essential characteristic of transformative projects - and needs to occur between entities that either don’t typically work together or don’t want to work together for whatever reason. Identify partners critical to one’s success and tether your future to them – including partners from different stakeholder communities.

2.      Technology: Technology is our friend; and we must embrace it. Technology exists allowing communities, businesses and farmers to treat any source of water to any water quality standard for any use needed and at any scale required. Technology also exists to operate complicated collection, treatment and distribution systems remotely and reliably.  Advances in artificial intelligence are only going to increase the effectiveness and reliability of technologies used to move and treat water.  I’m always in awe when I visit a water treatment utility and see what is possible through effective use of technology.   

3.      Testing and trials: knowledge and information are critical to success in most things, no different with water management. Continuous testing, monitoring, data collection and analysis to determine whether the designed-for project or system is accomplishing that which it intended is critical.  The information gathered helps project managers continuously optimize operations and avoid mistakes. 

4.      Transparency:  Sometimes data bring good news, sometimes mistakes are really bad, and sometimes stakeholders can be just plain ugly. What’s critical is that partners are transparent with each other and disclose, discuss and digest all acquired information, no matter how uncomfortable doing so may be. 

5.      Talking:  This characteristic could be called effective communications, but neither word begins with a T, so.... Transformative projects begin with talking and succeed through talking among partners, stakeholders and broader audiences. I think it’s well-accepted that a primary reason why Pure Water San Diego initially failed in the nineties was due to a lack of an effective communications strategy. Successful projects develop and integrate a communications strategy early in their lives. 

6.      Tailoring: Transforming how we manage water is not easy and a project design may look great on paper but once undertaken, may need to change as it is actually implemented.  Our water policies overseeing how water is currently managed in the U.S. were developed over fifty years ago! Transformative projects are able to adapt as they need to and, I believe that if project managers successfully cultivate solid partnerships through application of these eight principles, then the regulatory system supporting these projects can provide flexibility to enable adaptation to occur.

7.      Tenacity: It’s also cliché that nothing ever comes easy, but it’s even truer for big, bold projects that seek to transform how water is managed on a large scale.  Stick with it. Persist. Be tenacious. 

8.      Trust: Some people may consider trust as the first element one must have early in a process before necessary partnerships can be even formed. But I think trust builds over time as partners work transparently with each other and effectively communicate - celebrating wins and working through mistakes - though without trust among those that one has tethered one’s future to, transformation won’t be achieved. 

I’ve been fortunate to have worked with water managers for over twenty years, and I’ve come to trust many of them. They are the best of the best. I know we can transform our water future because I’ve seen examples of it in Orange County California, Hampton Roads Virginia, El Paso Texas and Hillsboro Oregon.

On this Earth Day, I hope you believe this too.