White House highlights water R&D needs

More than 150 US federal, corporate, and nongovernmental organizations have announced new programs and commitments to sustainable water resources management. The 37-page list includes pledges of more than $1 billion in R&D from the private sector over 10 years, with General Electric alone committing to spend $500 million on new water technologies.

The announcements, made at a White House conference marking World Water Day on 22 March, were in response to a call to action on a sustainable water future issued by the Obama administration last December. The goals include reducing by two-thirds the cost and energy requirements of turning seawater or brackish water into freshwater and halving the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced in the process.

In addition, nearly $4 billion in private capital investments have been committed to water infrastructure projects across the country over the next decade. Venture capital firm Ultra Capital committed to $1.5 billion in financing for decentralized, scalable water management solutions. A second firm, Sustainable Water, said it will invest $500 million to develop water reclamation and reuse systems.

The dozens of nongovernmental commitments came from academic institutions, companies, environmental organizations, industry groups, foundations, water utilities, and related collaborations. Many specified R&D programs, while others plan to promote and assist water technology commercialization efforts.

“The spillover benefits are huge when you invest in water innovation,” said Ali Zaidi, associate director of natural resources at the Office of Management and Budget. He cited an analysis that found 31% of water technology startups are profitable within 10 years, compared with 26% profitability for startups for all technologies.

Obama’s fiscal year 2017 budget request proposes a 33% increase, to $300 million, for basic and early-stage R&D on water, Zaidi added.

A presidential memorandum issued the day before the conference directs federal agencies to assist state and local governments and Native American tribes with drought preparedness. The average American uses 2000 m³ of water annually, compared with an average usage of 800 m³ per person worldwide, noted White House Science adviser John Holdren. About 600 US public water systems exceed by at least three times the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limit for lead, he added.

The new water investments by NSF include $20 million for multidisciplinary water research projects under the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, which awards grants to research universities. Grantees will seek to determine when and where the impacts of extreme events cascade through the combined socio-ecological system. A new multiagency initiative will apply nanoscale materials to improve water delivery and water-use efficiency.

NASA announced formation of a new Western Water Applications Office, based at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The new entity will support the use of satellite observations and airborne technologies to better respond to drought, flooding, declining snowpacks, and falling groundwater levels across the western US.

Kathryn Sullivan, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), unveiled a new weather model that will dramatically improve the nation’s river forecast capabilities. The system will provide forecasts for about 2.7 million locations, compared with the 4000 locations currently covered.

According to the White House, nearly $35 million in FY 2016 spending is devoted to water research grants in the budgets of the Department of Agriculture, EPA, NSF, and NOAA.

“We are facing a new normal,” said Alice Hill, senior director for resilience policy at the National Security Council. “We are looking down the barrel of a future where a warmer atmosphere will mean our historical norms—the 100-year flood or the 100-year drought—will no longer be a reliable method for predicting the future. New guides will be needed as we go forward.”

Hill pointed out several recent water crises: the worst drought in the Colorado River basin in 1200 years; the lead crisis in Flint, Michigan; and “sunny day flooding” from rising sea levels in Norfolk, Virginia, and Miami, Florida. She warned that “our collective well is running dry and now we have water spilling into places where we cannot contain it.”