Environmental Stewardship Committee

The Environmental Stewardship Committee supports the goals and objectives of the Forum through activities that focus on involvement of water suppliers and local governments on broader environmental issues and with environmental organizations. Its specific objectives are to:

 

  • Provide leadership and active engagement on environmental management issues as they relate to water resource and water supply management within the region
  • Promote regional environmental stewardship goals and practices within regional utility organizations
  • Develop and maintain constructive working relationships with environmental organizations and tribal governments and staff on water issues
  • Provide information, through a variety of means, on environmental management and stewardship that will be useful to utility management, operators, and technical staff
  • Engage with governmental agencies at federal, state, and local levels, and the state legislature on environmental objectives related to proper utility roles and responsibilities
  • Identify critical or emerging environmental issues of significance to utilities, and develop appropriate responses for Forum members and utility community
  • Ensure that Forum activities generally are consistent with general principles of environmental stewardship

2001 Drought Response Plan


One of the first collaborative stewardship efforts of the Water Supply Forum was to develop the 2001 Drought Response Plan.  Late in the winter of 2000-2001 it became clear that it would be a low snowfall year.  Based on the snow pack, expectations were that there would be areas of low flow, which could impede fish passage in the late summer and on into the fall.  Working proactively with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Forum members identified locations within the region that may have problems with fish passage under the expected conditions.  The project then went on to identify potential solutions and available resources to address the problem.  The complete 2001 Drought Response is available for download.

 

Carbon Workshop for Utilities

 

In 2009 the Stewardship Committee developed and presentied Carbon Workshop for water utilities that was held in Tacoma in September.  Information on the workshops is available here.