2008 Internship Project Descriptions
Clean Water for North Carolina
Since 1984, Clean Water for North Carolina
has worked for clean, safe communities and workplaces with
hundreds of communities and thousands of North Carolinians.
We have helped people in every county of North Carolina through
organizing and technical assistance, and have been a key player
in many statewide environmental issues. CWFNC researches environmental
problems, analyzes public policy, and educates and empowers
people. Skilled, confident and knowledgeable people who remain
active in their communities are among our most important achievements.
www.cwfnc.org
Project Proposal 1:
Protecting North Carolina’s Groundwater for Rural Communities and Ecosystem Needs
(Asheville)
Project Proposal 2:
Water Efficiency: Meeting North Carolina's Needs Fairly, Without Re-engineering Rivers
(Durham)
Project Proposal
1
Protecting North Carolina’s Groundwater for Rural Communities and Ecosystem Needs
Background: Clean Water for NC, among the state’s non-profits focusing on water issues, has been particularly committed to protecting groundwater as a safe and plentiful drinking water source for the state’s large rural population. There have been increasing pressures, both on the quality and quantity of our groundwater in recent decades. Clean Water for NC has worked to enforce groundwater standards and improve right to know for well-users.
In recent decades, substantial depletion of our groundwater aquifers has become a pressing issue, resulting new “capacity use area” rules to reduce withdrawals from two coastal aquifers in place. During the drought of 1998-2002, many older private wells in the western piedmont, NC’s driest region, dried up, requiring drilling of new wells or hookups to public supplies. Groundwater is also highly connected to surface water flow, so in periods of low rainfall the “base” flows will depend on groundwater slowly discharging to rivers, streams and lakes. During the “exceptional” 2007 drought, some locations in the state have recorded their lowest stream flows on record, evidence of further stress on aquifer levels.
Despite these indications of a threat to a resource depended on by millions of NC residents to meet their basic needs, state agencies still have only 24 groundwater quantity monitoring wells, and there is no regulatory limit to the amount of water that a private, public, or commercial well can withdraw. At the same time, more industries, commercial operations, and even wealthy homeowners wanting to irrigate lawns are drilling new supply wells. Wastewater discharge permits to surface water are being granted for developments that take their water supply from shrinking aquifers. North Carolina desperately needs an overhaul of its policies to account for, protect and stabilize our groundwater resources for ecological and human needs. The intern will investigate policy options and the feasibility of implementation, ranging from permitting with metering and limits to prioritizing uses, and royalties or other volume-based fees to prevent exploitation and depletion).
Expected product : Report comparing NC’s current groundwater resource policy with other key eastern states and a selection of those with a history of water stress, with recommendations for legislative and regulatory action to achieve a sustainable, safe water supply for NC’s future needs. Opportunities for travel, diverse interviews and media outreach.
Qualifications: Strong interest in grassroots environmental activism and social justice; basic familiarity with water resource law and regulations, groundwater behavior; ability to take initiative and work independently; and excellent oral and written communication skills as well as internet research skills.
Project Supervisor: Gracia O’Neill 828-251-1291
Location: 29 ½ Page Ave. Asheville, NC 28801 hope@cwfnc.org
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Project Proposal 2
Water Efficiency: Meeting NC’s Needs Fairly, Without Re-Engineering Rivers
Background: In the 2007 “exceptional” drought, public initiatives to reduce water usage in NC were limited by current law to the governor urging local water departments to voluntarily implement conservation. Generally the action taken by local governments has been far too little and much too late, resulting in towns and cities with less than two months supply of water, as they approach a winter expected to be have far below average precipitation.
Current policies have mostly encouraged municipalities to seek new supplies, through accessing new reservoirs or building infrastructure connect with other suppliers, rather than creating a statewide impetus to reduce some of the highest per capita water usage in the world to a more sustainable level. In our 2006 report, “A Fairly Watered State,” (see www.cwfnc.org), Clean Water for NC called for increased authority to require mandatory conservation measures, stronger reporting requirements and accountability for withdrawals from rivers and aquifers, and removal of subsidized water rates for a supplier’s large users.
However, such regulatory changes will not be enough to permanently shift water suppliers’ practices and decrease usage by residents, public facilities, business and industry. New financing mechanisms to public and private water customers that pay for themselves over a reasonable period by reducing costs of supply will be needed to effectively reduce our needs and avoid expensive and environmentally damaging new infrastructure and reservoirs. Such financing could the detection and repair of water leaks, install cisterns to capture and reuse storm-water from buildings for non-potable uses, replace inefficient appliances and carry out education and consulting programs to change landscaping practices and industrial processes.
Project Description: The intern would research the limitations of current NC water resource policy, and participate in recommendations to strengthen water resource accountability and drought management. Interviews with local water officials would be used to determine the most effective types of water conservation activities carried out by local suppliers and estimate the cost benefit for each of them, creating a database of activities and installations that could be cost effectively financed on public and private buildings scale. Finally, the intern would help draft an outreach plan to build support for a “utility-like” entity to finance these activities.
Expected product: Report and simple model for cost-effective activities for a local or regional “water conservation utility,” recommendations for statewide water management and legislation, and a preliminary plan for a water efficiency meeting to educate and engage public officials, religious organizations and others to implement statewide water efficiency.
Desired qualifications: Strong interest in grassroots environmental activism, social entrepreneurism and economic justice; some familiarity with regulatory approaches and environmental economics; excellent communication and research skills.
Project Supervisor: Hope Taylor, Executive Director, 2009 Chapel Hill Rd., Durham, 27707 hope@cwfnc.org (919) 401-9600
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