John Schombert from 3 Rivers Wet Weather opened the conference by defining the geographic, economic, and political problems of wet weather issues in the southwestern Pennsylvania region and the Ohio River Basin. He gave an overview of the Consent Orders enforced by DEP and the Allegheny Department of Health, and then cited two examples of regional collaboration in a manhole mapping project and a flow monitoring plan, showing that the notion of 'adapting governance' has succeeded in the past. Finally, Schombert closed by predicting the economic impact on the region and the burden placed on future generations if wet weather problems are not addressed regionally, and he suggested sustainable solutions to the problem that would require efforts in adaptive governance.

Other resources:

Read information on the Clean Water Act on the EPA's website

Visit the ALCOSAN website and read about the Consent Orders

Check out PA's Stormwater Best Management Practices Manual

Learn about "green roofs" and their impact on wet weather issues

Read an article about Pittsburgh being voted the "Most Livable City"

Time: 26 min 11 sec

The 2007 Road to Excellence Conference featured Keynote Speaker Bruce Stiftel, Ph.D, of Florida State University. He is the co-editor of Adaptive Governance and Water Conflict: New Institutions for Collaborative Planning. Keynote Speaker Dr. Bruce Stiftel shared his experiences in Florida, a region with great water access challenges and history of contention over water. Stiftel noted that the planet is 75% water and each of us is 60% water. 'Anything that is that ubiquitous in our world, in our cells, and all the life around us is going to touch an enormous number of the things we do, the policies we set, the institutions that we have,' Stiftel declared, as he begin explaining the many uses of water and the different agencies and stakeholders that interact and conflict over its management and use. He cited examples from his home state of Florida to illustrate the context for discussions of adaptive governance.

Time: 5 min 37 sec

Dr. Stiftel presented two examples of Florida regions attempting to overcome challenges to adaptive governance where overuse and degradation of watersheds were at issue: one in the Tampa Bay area where the road to regionalization was rough, and one in East Central Florida where neutral facilitators helped to smoothly mediate cooperation.

Dr. Stiftel contrasted the ways in which the stakeholders in the two regions have attempted to adapt to deal with their water supply problems. In the 'Tampa Bay Water Wars', a growing population in the three-county area led to overpumping. The Southwest Florida Water Management District (WMD) began to deny water use permits and issued Water Shortage Orders which had a severe effect on development. The WMD was sued in excess of $10 million, and the conflict was fueled on by the media. A first attempt at a long-term plan failed, creating embarrassment for political leaders and governmental entities. Negotiations finally began to take place when the Conflict Resolution Consortium was brought in to mediate and an incentive was provided by the WMD to pay for a new desalinization plant. Tampa Bay Water is in existence today, and seems to be working so far.

Where negotiations in the Tampa Bay Water Wars were largely encouraged by the governor and legislators who wanted to stop the embarrassment of the ongoing problems, conflict resolution in the case of East Central Florida was encouraged by a desire to avert the crisis altogether. Facilitators and experts were consulted immediately to assess a potential conflict that could occur with a projected shortage of water across three water management districts. Together, the stakeholders compiled a prioritized list of projects and devised a long-term plan for the East Central Florida region that is currently waiting for approval.

Time: 11 min 19 sec

Techniques of conflict resolution to balance the interests of stakeholders are incorporated in efforts to adapt government. Facilitating conflict naturally produces challenges to cooperation and communication. Dr. Stiftel presented five challenges to adaptive governance that were identified by the contributors to the study of water management in Florida, which help explain that the concept of adaptive governance is in its early stages and that these challenges are 'key to creating successful second-order institutions capable of adaptive governance.' Stakeholder identification can be difficult, because all parties involved need to be effectively represented, and the process of the design has to involve all stakeholders and authorities so that policy agreements can be reached. Two areas of learning also present challenges to adaptive governance. Scientific learning must be regarded by stakeholders as indefinite, and there needs to be an understanding that answers will not be readily available from scientific study. Discussions of public learning highlight the necessity for transparency of the decision-making process. The public has a right to information so that they understand the alternatives available to them in managing a resource as valuable as water. Finally, a major challenge to the concept of adaptive governance is the ability to respond to the problems of resource management and to achieve the goals of sustainability, equity, and efficiency. Dr. Stiftel explained that, 'We have to reinvent government over and over again…' in order to accommodate different agencies dealing with new problems in water management.

Time: 10 min 14 sec

Dr. Stiftel concluded by mentioning three areas of opportunity for adapting governance: stronger collaboration, pragmatic science, and wiser competition. 'Where they work well, these processes create spaces where adversaries can explore together and develop agreements that leave them better off. Science advances, solutions emerge; but conflict lives on. Only now it does so with new social and political rules and structures that encourage more efficient and perhaps more equitable next steps.'

Time: 3 min 42 sec 

Over lunch, DEP Deputy Secretary, Office of Water Management Cathleen Curran Myers spoke of the hope that the DEP has to be involved with regional water management efforts in southwestern Pennsylvania. Meyers talked about the nature of Pennsylvania’s government infrastructures, and explained that although they are not supportive of adaptive governance, she saw opportunities for cooperation to achieve the desired end result of better water quality in the state and region. Myers contended that more monitoring will only tell us what we already know, which is that, 'when it rains, we have pathogens everywhere and we can’t meet the water quality standards.' Instead of more monitoring, she advocated for better monitoring combined with modeling for adaptive governance efforts. Meyers drew laughs when she sympathized with municipalities over the complicated processes that they have to follow in order to be in compliance with DEP and Health Department regulations. She presented the idea of having one water resources management plan with a template to follow in order to save each municipality from an unreasonable amount of planning, and requested help from officials to work towards the comprehensive plan.

Time 12 min 32 sec

Moderated by Cindy Hasenjager of 3 Rivers Wet Weather, a panel of local experts provided perspectives on adaptive governance options and water management issues that they have handled in their communities. Douglas Watkins of Upper St. Clair Township gave the perspective of a middle watershed and spoke of the success that they have had with collaboration in dealing with the Painters Run and Chartiers Creek watersheds. Watkins noted that Upper St. Clair, through bond issues, has incurred millions of dollars in debt because they are committed to fixing the water management problems, and explained that intergovernmental cooperation can assure local interest, responsibility, and essential services.

Time: 6 min 13 sec

Moderated by Cindy Hasenjager of 3 Rivers Wet Weather, a panel of local experts provided perspectives on adaptive governance options and water management issues that they have handled in their communities. Mary Ellen Ramage of the Borough of Etna described the ongoing and persistent problems faced by lower watersheds affected by upstream communities’ runoff, citing the specific example of the flooding of Etna after Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Ramage noted that the Consent Order process proved that neighboring communities can get along, and said that working together with the four watersheds in their COG has yielded progress in managing flooding and stormwater issues.

Time: 6 min 49 sec

Moderated by Cindy Hasenjager of 3 Rivers Wet Weather, a panel of local experts provided perspectives on adaptive governance options and water management issues that they have handled in their communities. Kevin Garber of Babst, Calland, Clements and Zomnir, P.C. offered some legal incentives to adapting government, like the ability to self-regulate taps, availability of resources, and long-term planning. He also spoke of some practical ways to adapting, like making sure all agencies are on the same page, ensuring that the plans are achievable, getting the citizens involved, and creating management ease with one group overseeing compliance with regulations. Garber advocated for bringing wet weather water quality standards into the forefront of discussion, and performing supplemental environmental work in lieu of incurring penalties to show good faith.

Time: 9 min 13 sec

Moderated by Cindy Hasenjager of 3 Rivers Wet Weather, a panel of local experts provided perspectives on adaptive governance options and water management issues that they have handled in their communities. Michael Dufallo of Indiana County Municipal Services Authority talked about the challenges of cooperation and infrastructure repair in a rural, upper watershed. He spoke of the County Municipal Services Authority that governs the water management issues in Indiana County, and mentioned that a county authority takes away from a lot of the politics involved with getting municipalities to work together. He also said it provides for planning and better service. Duffalo conveyed to the audience how the incentives for lower user fees and for newer, better infrastructure and treatment plants in member municipalities inspires them to join county authorities.

Time: 8 min 39 sec

Moderated by Cindy Hasenjager of 3 Rivers Wet Weather, a panel of local experts provided perspectives on adaptive governance options and water management issues that they have handled in their communities. Ty Gourley of the Institute of Politics promoted the work the Regional Water Management Task Force is doing to provide models for multi-municipal collaboration in water management, and to educate municipalities on the water quality benefits and economic benefits of regional collaboration. Gourley acknowledged the balancing act involved with stakeholder values, and explained that efficiency is not the ultimate goal. Cooperation can take many forms, and according to Gourley, the Task Force is dedicated to designing achievable plans that will result in desirable outcomes.

Time: 3 min 44 sec

The day concluded with an appearance from Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato. He noted that the consent orders were moving into the 'fix it' phase, and said that he was determined to lobby for federal and state dollars with a collective, regional plan for how the money will be used. Onorato expressed the feeling that the quality control and contracting processes would be adversely affected if separate contracts for each municipality were drawn instead of one regional contract, but conceded that there is not one certain entity that should oversee the process. He stated that economic status should not matter, because a regional approach means that all communities should be involved in water management and should have stable infrastructure to support it. Onorato explained the comprehensive plan for Allegheny County and long-term planning for the future, and how a sustainable plan for water and sewer management would fit into the bigger picture. The audience was given the opportunity to ask questions of Onorato, where the consent orders and the comprehensive regional plan were discussed further.

Time: 9 min 26 sec