2011 Water Resources Summit

Sustaining Our Nation's Water Resources
Answering the Call for Stewardship

October 25, 2011
University of Maryland's Stamp Student Union

The Horinko Group's 2011 Water Summit, Sustaining Our Nation's Water Resources – Answering the Call for Stewardship, was held on October 25 at the Adele H. Stamp Student Union, the center for student life on the University of Maryland's College Park campus.

This year's Water Summit featured three panel discussions, each delving deeper into our nation's most pressing water sustainability topics: Water Governance, Water Advocacy, and the Business of Water.

As a follow up to our 2011 Summit, we have made all our materials and presentations from this dynamic forum available online in our Resources section.

We feel strongly that an informed water resource community ensures a more sustainable water future for us all.

Overview

Our nation has pressing water supply and quality issues. Factoring in climate change forecasts and population growth projections, the prognosis for a sustainable water future in light of current practice fades like a mirage. Projected demands and associated costs call for a near-term and well-informed course correction in the way we Americans relate to water.

Past practice has shown us that it is highly unlikely that we can successfully regulate or spend our way past these daunting challenges. We can no longer be independent water users; we must become interdependent water stewards. Perhaps our best path forward is to accept our interdependence, find common ground, and embrace collaboration and a new acceptance of a single physical reality – there is only so much water to go around.

A new era of stewardship must squarely and actionably focus on the nexus of food, water, energy, and our ability to cooperate. New levels of efficiency can then be realized through education, conservation, and thoughtful governance. Most importantly, we must all be involved. This will not happen with a traditional top-down approach and whatever is undertaken will not be sustainable without a change in our behavior and the way each of us relates to water.

2011 Summit

Three sectors played a pivotal role in setting the tone – the public sector, the advocacy sector, and the business sector. We welcomed a distinguished lineup of prominent actors in each of these sectors to discuss and reveal recent gains to better integrate and innovate. Our goal for this daylong series of panels was to establish a mark for what's taking place today and what's being planned for tomorrow. The summit served as an important conversation for anyone currently operating in the water world.

Following welcome and introductions, Brendan McGinnis, Director of The Horinko Group's Water Division provided the charge for the day. As a practitioner addressing our nation's water issues, he shared his insights into new approaches to environmental protection using partnerships, flexibility, and innovation to create environmental improvement.

Panels

The opening panel focused on Water Governance and featured a federal sector interagency panel of water resource executives. The discussion touched on their recent efforts to integrate water resource planning and management as well as the incremental advantages of adaptive management and system thinking. The panelists discussed their thoughts on balancing regulation versus incentive and described their efforts to reach down into local communities. We learned about programs that promised a stewardship approach, as well as effective federal leadership in redirecting resources and manpower toward such endeavors.

The second panel focused on Water Advocacy and featured a group of leading NGOs providing exclusives on a variety of national water strategies they are eagerly advancing. We heard what each organization is doing to promote social learning to better inform our citizens and communities on the issues and importance of water conservation and re-use. We also heard how they are working to align and leverage their respective initiatives to create a stronger voice for water resources. Insights were shared on current progress and challenges encountered along the way.

The third and final panel focused on The Business of Water and featured private and municipal water service providers discussing pricing, water efficiency, and the infrastructure backlog. We heard about new water conservation strategies they are employing and best practices that are emerging to tackle infrastructure and compliance challenges. Panelists shared their thoughts on pricing of water, capitalizing infrastructure projects, privatization decisions and options, and recapture and reuse success stories.

The day concluded with a networking reception which served as a venue for summit attendees and presenters to establish new contacts, catch up with colleagues on current water issues, and continue conversations based on new insights gained from this dynamic forum.

Agenda

Sustaining Our Nation's Water Resources
Answering the Call for Stewardship

October 25, 2011
University of Maryland's Stamp Student Union

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Resources

Provided below is a list of downloadable handouts, presentations, proceedings, and slideshows from our 2011 Water Resources Summit. Please note the panel presentations are relatively large and in ZIP format.

• 2011 Summit Proceedings (PDF)

• 2011 Summit Program (PDF)

• 2011 Summit Partners Slideshow (PDF)

• Summit Luncheon Presentation (ZIP)

• 2011 Panel Presentations

  • Water Governance (ZIP)

  • Water Advocacy (ZIP)

  • Business of Water (ZIP)

2011 Water Resources Summit Photo Gallery

Click a photo below to launch the photo gallery.