Clean Water Network’s First Annual Clean Water Book Club Reading List!

Clean Water Network is happy to announce its recommended reading list for 2009. Most of the entries on this year’s list were authored by Clean Water Network member organizations. The reports and books on the list reveal the cutting edge in thinking about water policy and management in the 21^st Century. Topics addressed range from Clean Water Act jurisdiction to the energy–water nexus to green infrastructure. The following books and reports are a must-read for every Clean Water Network member!

Legislative and Administrative H20 Priorities to President Obama’s Administration & the 111^th Congress, Clean Water Network, January 2009.

This document details federal actions that can be taken by the Obama Administration and the 111^th Congress to reduce water pollution and protect water resources across the country. It reflects the collaborative input and expertise of Clean Water Network (CWN) member organizations from across the country. This must have booklet is a comprehensive listing of top clean water legislative and administrative priorities for the Clean Water Network.

Courting Disaster: How the Supreme Court Has Broken the Clean Water Act and Why Congress Must Fix It, Earthjustice, Environment America, Clean Water Action, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Southern Environmental Law Center, April 2009.

This report details how muddied Supreme Court decisions and misguided policies by federal agencies have threatened water quality in many rivers, lakes, streams and other waters across the country. It contains more than 30 case studies from across the United States and demonstrates that without immediate passage of the Clean Water Restoration Act, a generation worth of progress toward cleaning up our Nation's waters may be lost.

Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches, Natural Resources Defense Council, July 2009. NRDC's annual survey of water quality and public notification at U.S. beaches finds that pollution caused the number of beach closings and advisories to hit their fourth-highest level in the 19-year history of the report. The number of 2008 closing and advisory days at ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches topped 20,000 for the fourth consecutive year, confirming that our nation's beaches continue to suffer from serious water pollution that puts swimmers at risk.

A Clear Blue Future: How Greening California Cities Can Address Water Resources & Climate Challenges in the 21^st Century, Natural Resources Defense Council, August 2009.

New NRDC and University of California, Santa Barbara analysis shows that implementing Low Impact Development (LID) practices at new and redeveloped residential and commercial properties in parts of California can increase water supplies by billions of gallons each year, providing an effective and much-needed way to mitigate global warming’s impact on California.

Clean Up Your Act! Gulf States Report Card: A Review of How the Clean Water Act is Incorporated into Gulf State Water Regulations, Gulf Restoration Network, September 2009.

This report grades each of the five Gulf States on how different important sections of the Clean Water Act are incorporated into state rules. Regretfully each state scored poorly, averaging a D+. The scores ranged from a C- to an F, which shows that all of the Gulf States have not lived up to their obligations under the Clean Water Act.

Natural Security: How Sustainable Water Strategies are Preparing Communities for a Changing Climate, American Rivers, September 2009.

This report highlights eight forward-looking communities that have become more resilient to the impacts of climate change by embracing green infrastructure. They have taken steps to prepare themselves in four areas where the effects of rising temperatures will be felt most: public health, extreme weather, water supply, and quality of life. In each case study American Rivers demonstrates how these water management strategies build resilience to the projected impacts of climate change in that area and how the communities that have adopted them will continue to thrive in an uncertain future.

Sustainable Water Systems: Step One – Redefining the Nation’s Infrastructure Challenge, The Aspen Institute, May 2009.

In 2008 the Aspen Institute convened a Dialogue on Sustainable Water Infrastructure in the U.S., bringing together distinguished leaders from the water utility industry; federal, state, and local government regulators; and non-profit environmental groups to develop policy recommendations that address water infrastructure planning and management challenges for the coming decades. This report highlights 10 KEY POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS for a sustainable water infrastructure, which were developed and adopted by dialogue participants. Taken as a whole, these recommendations represent a departure from traditional assumptions about the nature of water resources and services that have informed regulatory policy in the U.S. up to now.

The Carbon Footprint of Water, River Network, May 2009.

The Carbon Footprint of Water explores the energy and carbon emissions embedded in the nation’s water supplies. In this report, River Network has developed a baseline estimate of water-related energy use in the United States, as well as a comparative overview of the energy embedded in different water supplies and end-uses. The report also includes numerous examples of how water management strategies can protect our freshwater resources while reducing energy and carbon emissions.

Clean Water Infrastructure: A Variety of Issues Needed to Be Considered When Designing a Clean Water Trust Fund, United States Government Accountability Office, May 2009.

GAO was asked to (1) obtain stakeholders' views on the issues that would need to be addressed in designing and establishing a clean water trust fund and (2) identify and describe potential options that could generate about $10 billion in revenue to support a clean water trust fund. In conducting this review, GAO administered a questionnaire to 28 national organizations representing the wastewater and drinking water industries, state and local governments, engineers, and environmental groups and received 22 responses; reviewed proposals and industry papers; interviewed federal, state, local, and industry officials; and used the most current data available to estimate the revenue that could potentially be raised by various taxes on a range of products and activities.

Wasting Our Waterways: Industrial Toxic Pollution and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Clean Water Act, Environment America October 2009. Industrial facilities dumped 232 million pounds of toxic chemicals into America’s waterways, according to this seminal report by Environment America. The report also finds that toxic chemicals were discharged in 1,900 waterways across all 50 states. The Environment America report documents and analyzes the dangerous levels of pollutants discharged in to America’s waters by compiling toxic chemical releases reported to the U.S. EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory for 2007, the most recent data available.

Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water, Maude Barlow, May 2009 (paperback edition). In her latest book, Maude Barlow examines how water companies are reaping vast profits from declining supplies, and how ordinary people from around the world have banded together to reclaim the public's right to clean water, creating a grassroots global water justice movement. While tracing the history of international battles for the right to water, she documents the life-and-death stakes involved in the fight and lays out the actions that we as global citizens must take to secure a water just world for all. As people around the world turn their attention to the effects of climate change, Blue Covenant is a timely and important reminder for us to take heed of the global water crisis's impact on humans and the natural world.

The World's Water 2008-2009: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources, The Pacific Institute, January 2009.

Produced biennially, The World’s Water provides a timely examination of the key issues surrounding freshwater resources and their use. Each new volume identifies and explains the most significant trends worldwide, and offers the best data available on a variety of topics related to water. This new volume contains an updated chronology of global conflicts associated with water, as well as brief reviews of issues regarding desalination, the Salton Sea, and the Three Gorges Dam.

Region(s)/State(s):

National

Issue(s):

Agriculture

Clean Water Act Jurisdiction

Coast / Oceans

Enforcement

Funding

Global Warming and Water

Green Infrastructure

Impaired Waters (TMDL)

Pollutants (toxins, pharmaceuticals, etc.)

Runoff

Water Quality Standards

Wetlands