Science-based Adaptive Management: The Path for Cape Cod's Wastewater
• Friday, October 1, 2010, 9am-3pm with lunch included
• Sponsored by Rep. Matt Patrick, Clean Water Action, Coalition for Alternative Wastewater Treatment, Sierra Club's Cape Cod and Islands Chapter
• Cape Cod Community College, Lorusso Applied Technology Building, 2nd Floor
o 2240 Iyannough Road (Route 132)
West Barnstable, MA 02668
The US EPA Administrator has announced the Agency's support for Science and Adaptive Management as the approach needed to protect America's waters, saying recently "Stronger protections are going to have to be met with new ideas and cost-effective strategies. If we want our waters to work harder, we have to work smarter."

It has been reported that it takes 1,200 gallons of water per capita per day to operate the
U.S. economy but worldwide, the human population only consumes less then 1 gallon of water per capita per day.

It is clear from this fact that water reuse offers tremendous opportunity to reduce our impacts on water resources because theoretically all but the 1 gallon per capita per day can be readily reused.  Edward Clerico, President of Alliance Environmental, Inc. gave testimony  to the Federal Government Subcommittee on Energy and Environment on Water Re-use.

The Future of Water Re-use in America 

The Current Status of Water Re-use

Water, Ecology and Health:  Ecosystems as settings for promoting health and sustainability

 The aims of this paper are to draw attention to the importance of ecosystems as contexts for
healthy settings initiatives; to introduce water as a physical, literal and figurative vehicle for
understanding the systemic context for health and wellbeing; and to examine the potential
contributions of catchments as a setting for achieving health promotion.

Water, Ecology and Health

The Hard Path vs. Soft Path Choice

Our current water infrastructure is on the path to failure. Many big pipes transporting
water to and wastewater away from our cities are old and under capacity. Existing methods of
water use and wastewater treatment are wasteful and environmentally disruptive. Ultimately, as
climate change exacerbates droughts and storm events, the system is not sustainable.

Highlights

Decentralized water technologies and designs, such as water-efficient appliances, rooftop
rain gardens, and onsite wastewater treatment and reuse, are the keys to enhancing the
performance of the nation's aging centralized water and sewer systems and to assuring adequate water supplies and healthy ecosystems into the future. Decentralized systems also create a host of other benefits for communities, including energy savings, improvements in air quality, creation of green spaces, restoration of streams, aquifers, wetlands, and habitat, and stimulus for new green companies and jobs.

New Approaches

For decades, the Clean Water Act protected the Nation's surface water bodies from
unregulated pollution and rescued them from the crisis status they were in during
the late 1960s and early 1970s. Now these vital protections are being lost. This
report details the threat to our Nation's waters by examining dozens of case studies,
and highlights the urgent need for Congress to restore full Clean Water Act protections
to our waters.

Courting Disaster

EPW Committee Field Briefing on Investing in our Future and Protecting our Environment:

Water Infrastructure Needs in Rhode Island

Clean Water Action Rhode Island Congressional Testimony
Paul Schwartz, National Water Policy Coordinator
September 2, 2009

Rhode Island EPW Field Briefing