More than 80 percent of community water systems in the United States service populations of 50,000 or fewer. But taking a ‘Think Big’ approach for these vital small water systems, which often operate with limited resources, can yield significant improvements.
That was the message from Joshua Palmer and Stephen Rupar of engineering consultancy WSP USA during their Global Center technical presentation this week at WEFTEC 2024 in New Orleans.
“As there is an increased regulatory reality, small systems are not going to be able to operate the way that they always have. Not only that, but the federal and state compliance agencies are not going to be able to interact with small systems the way that they always have,” said Palmer, who is senior vice president, water, at WSP USA. “We have to insert aggregation strategies and solutions where small systems can see themselves in compliance, where it is actually reasonable for them to get through the process, where they have the help that they need. And we think there are some strategies that make it so compliance isn’t only important, it’s reasonable.”
Both Palmer and Rupar explained that small systems often face challenges that larger systems are better equipped to handle due to larger staffs. Among those challenges are PFAS regulations, Lead and Copper Rule revisions, disinfection byproducts and federal and state funding processes, all of which are leading to additional complexities for small systems.
“[Small systems] are going to have one or two people at the office that are general manager, administrator types of folks that are responsible for doing the planning, the strategic thinking about all the regulations they have to comply with, besides the day-to-day operations,” said Rupar, who is the senior vice president - national drinking water market sector leader at WSP USA. “The point is, that they are facing all of the same regulatory challenges of the big systems but with incredibly limited staff.”
Specific to PFAS, Rupar said the Environmental Protection Agency is currently regulating six compounds right now and studying and collecting data on many more, which will have a future impact on both small and large water systems.
“The trend is clear. They are regulating PFAS at a very low level, low threshold,” Rupar said. “They are researching additional compounds and there are thousands of them so the list is growing and growing. More compounds are going to be regulated at lower and lower thresholds.”
Palmer said WSP USA has been interviewing small systems across the U.S., and discussing PFAS, lead and copper or other regulations, and finding out what challenges small systems are facing.
“If we don’t understand the problem we can’t really create the teams, the technologies, the workflows, the processes,” Palmer said. “We can’t actually solve the problem.”
Palmer went on to explain that a promising strategy to enhance compliance and service quality for smaller systems is the aggregation of multiple smaller systems within a single project framework. By utilizing some of these aggregation strategies, small systems can, in effect, bulk up their team.
“The aggregation strategies — basically, there is strength in numbers. Small systems don’t have numbers, so how do you do that? You can either group with other small systems to have a unified organization… Sometimes you need the same things and there is strength in that aggregation,” Palmer said.
Palmer closed the presentation by outlining four keys to small system happiness:
Share: Small systems cannot function as silos moving forward and collaboration is imperative. “When you have increasing regulations, you have to share information, you have to be more collaborative with the people around you — the innovation actually often comes from them,” Palmer said. “Much of what we build from an innovation standpoint just comes from asking people, asking the experts on the ground. That sharing of knowledge is so important.”
Strengthen: Many small water systems do not have redundancy built into their operations, Palmer said, adding that the need to strengthen those areas is paramount. “Eighty percent of that water that is delivered in the United States is served by water systems that serves 50,000 or less in population,” Palmer said. “We have to strengthen the infrastructure in a way that it makes it reasonable to actually manage it. And there are innovations that actually make operations more reasonable.”
Sustain: Designing systems that make sense for the people who are operating them and are responsible for them needs to be a priority, according to Palmer. “We have to engrain that on-the-ground knowledge into the design,” Palmer said. “Something what’s flashy and cool and innovative but not sustainable is not a good solution. That means we have to work as partners to actually create these things.”
Simplify: “I’m working on a project right now where there was a proposed design that was the most complicated thing I had ever seen from anyone. We took a look at it and we were able to simplify it in a way that it would actually be manageable for the client,” Palmer said. “The other thing from a small systems standpoint is that with these increased regulations, digitizing your documentation is going to be really important.”
