INSIDE OUT What We Can’t See Will Shape Our Future
DEEP BLUE Optimizing Water Resources
WASTE? NOT Recapturing and Repurposing Waste
THE POST-CARBON CITY Policies and Technology for Clean Energy
FutureStructure A PUBLICATION FROM THE GOVERNING INSTITUTE AND THE CENTER FOR DIGITAL GOVERNMENT
June
2014
Desalination Making a Splash
A SUPPLEMENT TO GOVERNING
FutureStructure_June14.indd 1
5/12/14 2:14 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
SOLUTION SPOTLIGHT: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WATER COMPANIES
The Value of Water An invaluable yet underappreciated resource. Water. It’s the invisible thread that weaves together our daily lives. We often take it for granted and we easily forget there is no substitute for water.
Sponsored Content
A nationwide problem with a silver lining. America has 2.8 million miles of water distribution and wastewater pipes. The majority of this infrastructure has only received a fraction of the investment that’s needed for proper maintenance and replacement. For too long, the nation has taken an out of sight, out of mind approach to water facilities and communities across the U.S. are relying on aging water infrastructure in need of repair or replacement. The average American water pipe is about 47 years old. Some of the country’s largest cities — Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and New York City — are transporting water in pipes that are nearly 80 years old. In the U.S. there are about 650 water main breaks every day, or one break every two minutes. An estimated 1.7 trillion gallons of treated water per year are lost from U.S. water distribution systems, at an annual national cost of $2.6 billion. We are at a critical moment in time — when addressing U.S. water infrastructure must become a national priority. Investment in water infrastructure will do more than reduce waste and improve reliability. For every $1 billion invested in water infrastructure in the U.S., 28,500 new jobs are created and $3.4 billion are added to the GDP.
“Every individual, family and business across the United States depends on safe and reliable water service. The current condition of our nation’s water infrastructure puts that service in jeopardy and inaction is no longer an acceptable course. Americans must understand that these are very real challenges, but they can and must be met both for a safe today, and a prosperous and bright tomorrow.” Michael Deane, Executive Director, National Association of Water Companies
Private Water Solutions. The public expects reliable water service and the 73 million Americans served by private water operators can depend on their commitment to take care of essential water infrastructure, protect the environment and provide 24-hour service to help ensure delivery of quality water and efficient treatment of wastewater. Private water companies have a long history of providing service that far surpasses customer expectations. Our members’ businesses include ownership of state-regulated drinking water and wastewater utilities, and many forms of public-private partnerships.
To learn more about NAWC and the solutions private water companies offer, visit: www.NAWC.org.
FS14 SS NAWC Q1.indd 1
5/9/14 10:38 AM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
June
2014
FutureStructure
The Unseen City 04 CONTENTS
04
18
The Unseen City: How What We Can’t See Shapes Our Future
From Trash to Treasure: Recapturing and Repurposing Our Garbage
The Blue Economy: New Strategies for Optimizing Our Most Precious Resource
18
10
10 26 Generating the Post-Carbon City: Clean Energy Cities Will Require Changes in Both Policy and Technology
26 FutureStructure is a joint initiative from the Governing Institute and Center for Digital Government. FutureStructure is a framework for thinking through and solving challenges faced in building economically, environmentally and socially robust communities. Learn more in the pages of this special publication and at FutureStructure.com
© 2014 E.REPUBLIC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1100 CONNECTICUT AVE. N.W., SUITE 1300, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036 916.932.1300 PHONE | 916.932.1470 FAX
On the cover: A cross section of a city street, circa the mid-20th century, illustrates some of the unseen components that make urban life possible. COVER IMAGE: FLICKR/CTA WEB/ILLUSTRATION BY MILES SATER
FUTURESTRUCTURE.COM
FutureStructure_June14.indd 3
5/12/14 2:19 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
3
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
THE UNSEEN CITY LIBRARYOFBIRMINGHAM.COM
HOW WHAT WE CAN’T SEE SHAPES OUR FUTURE
“The 19th century was a century of empires. The 20th century was a c WELLINGTON E. WEBB, FORMER MAYOR OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER
4
FUTURESTRUCTURE // THE UNSEEN CITY
FutureStructure_June14.indd 4
5/9/14 2:10 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
a century of nation states. The 21st century will be a century of cities.” FUTURESTRUCTURE.COM
FutureStructure_June14.indd 5
5/9/14 2:10 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
5
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
THE UNSEEN CITY
hen traveling in most major world cities, it doesn’t take much to be reminded of how advanced the population centers we’ve built have become. A simple glance skyward may yield a jawdropping view of humanity’s ability to build ever-taller structures. Even in cities without gargantuan skylines, wonders are everywhere if we take just a moment to let them be seen. When we pry our eyes from our smartphones and our minds from the many tasks that demand our attention, we can see the city for what it truly is – a marvelously complex network of interdependent systems. “Rarely does a resident of any of the world’s great metropolitan areas pause to consider the complexity of urban life or the myriad systems that operate around the clock to support it,” wrote Kate Ascher in her book Anatomy of a City. And of the world’s great cities, how often do we concern ourselves with what,
W
RARELY DOES A RESIDENT OF ANY OF THE WORLD’S GREAT METROPOLITAN AREAS PAUSE TO CONSIDER THE COMPLEXITY OF URBAN LIFE OR THE MYRIAD SYSTEMS THAT OPERATE AROUND THE CLOCK TO SUPPORT IT. exactly, makes a city great? Is it sheer size? Population density? The might of a city’s skyscrapers or its financial institutions? Is it the expansiveness of a city’s transportation network? Or is it perhaps, more recently, a city’s environmental friendliness? A simple argument is that it is all of these things — great cities are more than the sum of their many parts. This is a notion that has a fundamental place in the FutureStructure framework. But FutureStructure is much more than that. The thriving communities, towns, cities and metropolises of today and tomorrow are indeed greater than their sum components. Continued greatness
will depend on community leaders who are able to understand not only the sum of a city’s components, but also the connections that exist — or can be made to exist — between the myriad bits of infrastructure that together make a city. Advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data and data analytics, remote sensors and intelligent systems are bridging the gap between our ideas and our infrastructure. Within FutureStructure, we endeavor to perceive cities through three lenses: Soft Infrastructure: The intangible influencers such as regulations, education, laws, policies, human
ÞMegaregions: By 2050, the World Health Organization estimates 70 percent of the global population will live in cities. In the U.S., people are already gravitating toward living in these 11 “megaregions.”
FutureStructure_June14.indd 6
5/12/14 2:21 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
SOLUTION SPOTLIGHT: CH2M HILL
Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department’s new 32 MGD Agua Nueva Water Reclamation Facility completed using DBO.
A Holistic Approach to Water Management CH2M HILL — Serving public- and private-sector clients with one integrated water business that provides a full range of services — from concept through operations.
D
Sponsored Content
water solutions with a balanced approach to the water cycle — including water supply, treatment, conveyance, wastewater treatment, reuse, recovery and return to the environment. Whether in need of an upgrade, or simply looking for a consulting subject matter expert, CH2M HILL has the experience and innovative staff necessary to assist every water-related need. Cities are complex, interconnected systems. Understanding how these systems are connected requires visionary public sector leaders. By partnering with CH2M HILL, such leaders can access a unique combination of expertise and experience, and a deep understanding of how all of a city’s component parts work together. Whatever your current or future needs, CH2M HILL’s full-service, worldwide resources are available to support you on your next critical project.
ESIGN, BUILD, OPERATE — these are the three basic tenants at the core of any public water or wastewater treatment plant initiative. In most cases, each one of these steps is completed by a different team. Engineers design the plant, a team of construction workers builds the plant and lastly, government employees operate the plant. CH2M HILL is the only company in the market that can provide all three services in-house. With an emphasis in five markets — water, energy, environment and nuclear, facilities and urban environments, and transportation — CH2M HILL provides multidisciplinary services to each industry. As a full-service company, CH2M HILL will not only take responsibility for designing, building and operating water and wastewater treatment facilities, but will also provide service for everything in between. CH2M HILL offers total
To learn more about CH2M HILL, visit: www.ch2mhill.com or email us at
[email protected]
FS14 SS CH2MHill Q1.indd 1
5/12/14 11:48 AM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
THE UNSEEN CITY
capital, research and even inspiration … these are the places new ideas start. Hard Infrastructure: This is the built environment, the roads, utilities, energy, water, buildings, bridges and rails — all the things we’ve built or plan to build. Technology: Ever-improving technology better connects the soft and hard infrastructures. Today and in the future, technology will allow us to build new and better ways that make not just our buildings, roads and utilities smarter, but our communities as a whole. But why is this important? Why is it so critical that city leaders begin thinking more like a systems engineer? Consider these facts. In 1950, there were 83 cities with populations exceeding 1 million people; by 2007, this number had risen to 468. And by 2050, the World Health Organization estimates 70 percent of the global population will live in cities. This marks an unprecedented shift in human history. The vast majority of the world will soon live and work in these mammoth, manufactured ecosystems we call cities. In that context, it becomes clear why a much more
IT STARTS HERE.
Cities as Systems
Þ
Cities are vast systems. They are systems of systems. As former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano once said, “A city is a system — indeed, a city is a complex system of systems. All the ways in which the world works — from transportation, to energy, to health care, to commerce, to education, to security, to food and water and beyond — come together in our cities.” Increasingly, city stakeholders are becoming aware of how valuable it is to understand a “city as a system.” As part of the production of this issue of FutureStructure, the Governing Institute conducted a survey among water, waste and energy experts and stakeholders. This survey, which is referenced throughout these pages, found that 95 percent of respondents agreed that understanding the physical and technological connections that exist — or could be made
Everything starts with an idea. These ideas turn into physical things — our roads, our buildings and so on. If the idea is not right, the physical manifestation of that idea will not be right. Soft infrastructure can make an impact in unseen ways.
Infrastructure
HARD
These are the physical things — our buildings, roads, water and energy systems. Hard infrastructure can connect people and be constructed in a way to improve livability.
TECH
Increasingly sophisticated tools and systems make us smarter and improve the way we build communities and connect people. Technology is the accumulated know-how that evolves the tools of the trade.
Infrastructure
to exist — among a city or region’s infrastructure components leads to more intelligent decision-making. In this edition of FutureStructure, we examine three systems that make cities possible. As important as they are, these systems — water, waste and energy — are too often treated like the pipes behind the walls in that little thought is given to them until there is a problem. In the following pages you’ll learn about the current and future challenges present in the hard infrastructure within these systems. But more than that, you’ll learn about the soft infrastructure that is changing the way we think about these systems, as well as the technology that can be layered within them that can help a city’s stakeholders make more intelligent decisions.
Ninety-five percent of respondents agreed that understanding the physical and technological connections that exist – or could be made to exist – among a city or region’s infrastructure components leads to more intelligent decision-making.
FutureStructure is built around three basic tenets.
SOFT
8
holistic understanding of cities is vital to the well-being of the planet’s inhabitants.
FutureStructure Through Time Water and waste have always played a major role in the success and failure of our cities. The ancient Romans understood the importance of water as their empire was built. The remains of many magnificent aqueducts still stand — feats of engineering that even today would be difficult to replicate. Pre-dating Rome, the Persians built thousands of miles of “qanats.” Around 15 B.C., the Roman historian Vitruvius, in his book De Architectura, documented how qanats channeled water from aquifers, sometimes up to 40 miles away, through underground tunnels. These tunnels, like the Roman aqueducts that would follow, were precisely engineered to take advantage of gravity to deliver water to the people inhabiting the cities of Persia. The qanats were so well constructed that many remain in use today. Waste management is often mentioned alongside water as another marvel of Roman engineering. The Cloaca Maxima was one of Rome’s few purpose-built sewers. Constructed around 600 B.C., this system carried agricultural and human waste out of the city and into the Tiber River. It also inadvertently saved Rome from ruin by
FUTURESTRUCTURE // THE UNSEEN CITY
FutureStructure_June14.indd 8
5/12/14 2:24 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
effectively minimizing breeding grounds for mosquitoes, in turn greatly decreasing the chances of contracting malaria. “The Cloaca Maxima, the Great Drain of Rome, successfully fought disease for its entire existence, and though the Roman Empire eventually collapsed, the sewer did not,” wrote Duke University’s Amul Sura in a paper titled The Cloaca Maxima: Draining Disease from Rome. “Indeed, the city took on a grander and safer disposition after its construction that would foreshadow Rome’s future growth from a deadly marsh into a sprawling metropolis.” Sewer system technology would not appreciably advance for nearly 2,000 years. In fact, the opposite occurred. Following Rome and until the 1800s, sewers devolved back into crude systems of trenches and chamber pots. In that excerpt, Sura captures in a somewhat dramatic fashion why water, waste and now energy are really the lifeblood of a city. Understanding each of these as separate systems makes it difficult to see the larger picture. Instead, when looking at how these systems con-
Mother Well The main water source for the qanat
nect with each other and with other city systems, such as transportation and the built environment, a better, more intelligent view of a city starts to emerge. And when we begin to incorporate technology into these systems to strengthen existing connections and establish new ones, not only can city leaders make more intelligent decisions, the infrastructure itself becomes smarter.
Everything is Connected “Cities are often thought of as selfoperating organisms; they seem to have just happened,” writes Governing columnist Alex Marshall in his book Beneath the Metropolis. “In fact, the complex water, sewer and transportation systems that public officials control and operate are always the result of specific choices, usually by government.” Government continues to be in position to not only maintain but revolutionize city systems. There are hundreds of exciting, thought-provoking examples of cities that have begun down the path that defines FutureStructure, some of which are explored in greater
depth in the following pages. Harkening back to Beneath the Metropolis once more, cities the world over are coming to understand that “Cities are unnatural creations. Those that thrive overcome major obstacles that would have defeated other places.” The 21st century already poses its share of major obstacles in climate change, population growth and resource scarcity. In this issue you’ll discover much more about the strides being made in the areas of water, waste and energy to address and overcome these obstacles. And from a grander perspective, you’ll hopefully understand the vision of FutureStructure and why it’s important that elected officials and engineers, educators and planners, and technologists and dreamers come together to think through and solve the challenges faced in building economically and socially robust communities that are great places to live for the people who live in them. Because, after all, everything is connected.
ÞAncient aqueducts: Pre-dating Rome by centuries, the Persians built miles of aqueducts called qanats that tapped water tables and used gravity to deliver water to cities. Some qanats are up to 40 miles long and many still function.
Access Shaft Permits access to the qanat channel for construction and maintenance
Qanat Channel The qanat’s watercarrying channel
Outlet
Alluvium
Distribution A network of dams, gates and channels used to distribute the water
Irrigated Land
Water Table WIKIPEDIA
Bedrock
FUTURESTRUCTURE.COM
FutureStructure_June14.indd 9
5/13/14 10:22 AM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
9
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
NEW STRATEGIES FOR OPTIMIZING 10
FUTURESTRUCTURE // THE UNSEEN CITY
FutureStructure_June14.indd 10
5/9/14 2:11 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
OUR MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCE FUTURESTRUCTURE.COM
FutureStructure_June14.indd 11
5/9/14 2:11 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
11
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
THE BLUE ECONOMY
alifornia is in the grips of one of its worst droughts, reeling from the driest year in the state’s recorded history in 2013 and an equally dry start to the 2014 wet season. The state’s major reservoirs are only half full heading into what will be a long, hot summer, and the snowpack in the Sierra — which typically accounts for one third of the state’s water supply in an average year — is less than a third of normal. Water managers have cut water deliveries and called for voluntary and mandatory water conservation, putting even more pressure on the state’s urban centers and fertile agricultural fields, which together power the world’s ninth biggest economy. The situation is dire, and More could become more common than not just in California and the 80 percent of sewage in rest of the U.S., but also worlddeveloping wide, due to climate change, countries is still discharged population growth and polluuntreated into tion. In fact, the World Water rivers, lakes and oceans. Assessment Program finds that, on a global scale, more than 80 percent of sewage in developing countries is still discharged untreated into rivers, lakes and oceans. These stressors are threatening current water systems. Fundamental changes must be made that align technology, policy and infrastructure so that people can do more with less water. The future is not all gloom and doom, thankfully. The U.S. is on the cusp of a new era: Large cities and rural communities alike are tackling their water challenges with innovative solutions that were
Þ
CALIFORNIAWATERBLOG.COM
C
once thought impossible. A movement is afoot to find new small-scale sources of water in a world that is increasingly susceptible to the unpredictable whims of climate change.
Diversifying Water Sources At the dawn of the federal Clean Water Act in the early 1970s, the U.S. was very skilled at building large, regional water treatment plants that provided service to urbanized cities as well as rural communities. But in the 40 years since, water has become scarce to the point that the monolithic paradigm of a “single-source, single-supplier” water system is becoming
Þ A HISTORY OF
WATER INNOVATION 1700 B.C.
600 B.C.
First known sewers and flush toilets built on the island of Crete.
Rome’s Cloaca Maxima sewer system is constructed.
ÞDrought has hit California hard this year. Many of the state’s strategic reservoirs (such as Folsom Lake, shown here) reached all-time low water levels.
476
1774
1842
1890
Rome’s last emperor, Romulus Augustus, is deposed.
Chlorine is discovered in Sweden.
New York City pipes in water from Westchester County; Chicago pipes in water from Lake Michigan.
Chlorine is proven an effective disinfectant of drinking water.
1804 The first municipal water filtration works opens in Paisley, Scotland.
Things go south for a while.
312 B.C. 1000 B.C. Persians construct qanats to pipe water from local water table into cities.
antiquated. More public planners and social scientists are realizing that climate change and population growth will drive communities to seek water treatment, storage and distribution systems that are decentralized, much like the energy sector is increasingly relying on renewable sources such as wind, solar and hydropower to augment traditional sources like oil and coal. What does a “distributed” water system look like? At its core, it’s a decentralized system that provides water at the local level through an interconnected web of infrastructure such as stormwater catchment basins and reservoirs, grey
Roman aqueducts carry 1.2 billion liters of water a day a distance of 57 miles.
1877
Chlorine is first applied to drinking water to control foul odors in the water.
Louis Pasteur develops the theory that disease is spread by germs.
50
75
BLACK
95 100
1882 Filtration of London drinking water begins.
5/13/14 10:24 AM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 25
The Pelton Wheel, a type of water turbine, is invented.
1835
FutureStructure_June14.indd 12
5
1870
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
SACBEE.COM
ÞAn aerial view of Folsom Lake shows the impact of the current drought.
water recycling, small irrigation ponds at farms, community water tanks or household rain barrels. These smallerscale water sources are then treated and distributed nearby instead of piped and pumped to a treatment plant far away. For now, however, distributed systems are not yet mainstream. But among water experts there is plenty of interest in what distributed systems offer. For example, a distributed system can be more resilient in the event of a natural disaster because it doesn’t rely upon a single source, such as a large reservoir or a groundwater basin. Because it’s local, it uses less energy distributing the water
through pipes and pumps than a traditional, centralized system. In 2010, the U.S. water system consumed more than 12 percent of the nation’s energy, according to a study by University of Texas at Austin research. In California, water treatment and distribution accounts for about 20 percent of energy use in the state. New remote sensing and monitoring technologies and the Internet of Things are also making distributed water systems safer and more feasible than they once were. This marks a shift in attitudes for the water sector, which has traditionally been very conservative, understandably, because of its focus on public health. But
the current resource constraints utilities now face are proving impossible to ignore. A distributed water system need not be small. The San Diego County Water Authority, which provides service to more than 3 million residents, is a prime example of how a diversified, distributed water system on a large scale can pay dividends. Launched two decades ago to reduce the region’s reliance on imported water from the Colorado River, the Authority has invested more than $3 billion to raise the dam at the San Vicente Reservoir in order to add surface water capacity. The Authority also built the Twin Oaks Valley Water Treatment Plant in north San Diego
SOURCES: CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY; ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION; JERUSALEM POST
t
1895
1896
1905
1936
1970
1974
The Louisville Water Company’s coagulation with rapid-sand filtration eliminates turbidity and removes 99 percent of bacteria from water.
Construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct begins.
1996
First long-distance transmission (23 miles) of highvoltage alternating current from the Folsom Powerhouse hydroelectric plant to Sacramento, Calif.
The Hoover Dam opens.
President Nixon establishes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The Safe Drinking Water Act is passed, greatly expanding the scope of federal responsibility for safety of state drinking water.
President Clinton signs the Safe Drinking Water Act Reauthorization.
1908 A U.S. public water supply is chlorinated for the first time at Boonton Reservoir Supply, Jersey City, N.J.
1960 The California State Water Project begins.
1902 1882
1932
Belgium implements the The first commercial first continuous use of hydroelectric power plant chlorine to make drinking is built in Appleton, Wisc. water biologically “safe.”
San Francisco builds the first water reclamation facility.
1972 The Clean Water Act is passed.
1987
U.S. Public Health Service Drinking Water Standards Revision is accepted as minimum standards for all public water suppliers.
The Water Quality Act requires EPA to regulate storm water runoff.
50
75
BLACK
95 100
2007 The Tampa Bay desalination plant is fully operational.
5/13/14 10:19 AM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 25
Israel opens the Soreq desalination plant. The country can now produce a water surplus using desalination.
1962
FutureStructure_June14.indd 13
5
2013
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
THE BLUE ECONOMY
County, which draws water through very fine pores in membrane fibers that are large enough for water to pass through, but small enough to leave behind contaminants and particles. The plant is capable of treating 100 million gallons a day, providing a fallback option in case flows from the Colorado River are interrupted. The San Diego County Water Authority estimates one third of the region’s water supply will be locally sourced by 2020. These measures have helped Southern California cope with the state’s serious drought and avoid mandatory water rationing.
Þ WHAT KEEPS THE WATER
WORKS FROM WORKING?
Finding Innovative Solutions
Þ SAN DIEGO
WATER SUPPLY
SOURCE: SAN DIEGO COUNTY WATER AUTHORITY
26%
Aging infrastructure
19% Diverse and powerful interests
Lack of funding to fix problems
is piped into the water district’s wells to create a seawater intrusion barrier as it travels to one of the region’s percolation basins where it recharges the area’s groundwater supply. Since opening in 2008, the plant has produced more than 130 billion gallons of high-quality water. In the coming years, the water recycling concept proven at the GWRS could be used
50
75
BLACK
95 100
6%
Growing costs
Technology
Construction on the Carlsbad desalination plant is more than 40 percent complete. The project is part of the San Diego County Water Authority’s plan to further diversify its water supply. By 2020, the county will get water from eight sources, with the desalination plant providing up to 7 to 10 percent of San Diego County’s water supply. 4% 6% 4%
11%
95% 7%
13%
7% 6%
30%
13% 16% Total 578 TAF
Total 645 TAF
1991
Total 779 TAF 46%
2013
2020
10% 24%
FUTURESTRUCTURE // THE UNSEEN CITY
5/12/14 2:30 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 25
Conflicting regulations, policies or codes
6%
to augment reservoirs or, if state and federal laws were changed, could be added directly into a community’s water distribution system. The initial upfront costs are large, but that could be changing, said Mehul Patel, the GWRS program manager and the water district’s principal process engineer. “The price is definitely coming down and there are more manufacturers in the
FutureStructure_June14.indd 14
5
7%
SOURCE: GOVERNING INSTITUTE SURVEY
3%
5%
14
39% POSEIDON RESOURCES
One of the San Diego County Water Authority’s signature efforts is a new desalination plant under construction along the Pacific coastline. Scheduled to begin service as early as 2016, the Carlsbad Desalination Plant will become the largest of its kind in the nation, capable of delivering 50 million gallons a day using a reverse osmosis treatment process. Another is Orange County Water District’s Groundwater Replenishment System (GWRS), which has become a worldwide model of how to augment a local water supply. The cutting-edge facility in Fountain Valley, Calif., takes water from a nearby wastewater treatment plant and sends it through a three-step treatment process of microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light with hydrogen peroxide. After treatment, the water
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
Þ DESAL IN SOCAL Carlsbad, Calif., lies about 35 miles up the coast from San Diego. It is the site of a $1 billion desalination plant that is currently under construction.
An aerial view of the Carlsbad desalination plant currently under construction.
market. It’s definitely cheaper than when we started,” said Patel. The technology could be cheap enough someday, he said, that a small city or community could build this type of infrastructure. The water industry typically is slow to change, but San Diego, Orange County and the rest of Southern California have insulated themselves from the worst effects of California’s drought by taking a holistic, proactive approach to water management. For instance, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the largest district of its kind in the nation, has banked more than 3 million acre-feet of
groundwater — enough to provide water for the region in case of a multi-year drought. For years, districts in the southern part of the state have encouraged residents to conserve by offering cash rebates for installing low-flow toilets and other efficient fixtures. And in an age where the construction of new surface storage is difficult, if not impossible, Metropolitan built Diamond Valley Lake. Completed in 2003, the reservoir added 800,000 acrefeet of additional storage. By necessity, California is leading the way on water. But it’s by no means the only place where innovation is happening. Cities and regions thought to be “water rich” also are doing their part to become more efficient because it makes environmental and financial sense. The Chicago-based nonprofit Blue Tech Alliance is connecting businesses and universities to new investment opportunities in the “blue economy,” while the nonprofit organization WaterTAP is championing Ontario, Canada’s, role as a hub for more than 900 water industry companies, research centers and tech incubators. Boston also is tapping this emerging market: In January, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration announced the formation of the New England Water Innovation Network, (NEWin) which is recruiting startups, corporations, academia and investors to spur development of new technology.
Metropolitan Water District Imperial Irrigation District Transfer All American & Coachella Canal Lining Conservation (existing and additional) Recycled Water Seawater Desalination Groundwater Local Surface Water TAF = Thousand Acre-Feet
Under the jurisdiction of the San Diego County Water Authority, the plant is expected to come online in 2016 and provide San Diego County residents with 50,000 acre-feet of water (more than 16 billion gallons) every year. The plant is being built, and will be operated by, a company located in Stamford, Conn. As part of the deal to build the plant, the Authority agreed to purchase those 50,000 acre-feet of water every year for 30 years, with a safeguard in place that the Authority can reject any water that doesn’t meet its standards. The desalination plant will provide 7 to 10 percent of San Diego County’s water supply by 2020. “The cost of desalting seawater has come down significantly over the last two decades or so,” said Bob Yamada, water resources manager at the San Diego County Water Authority. “Previously, ocean desalination was not in the ballpark with other new water supplies. Improvements in the reverse osmosis technology and improvements related to energy recovery have contributed to a now cost-competitive water supply option.” Construction on the Carlsbad plant is more than 40 percent complete. Part of the project includes a 10-mile pipeline that connects the plant to the Authority’s water treatment site in San Marcos, Calif. More than three miles of the pipeline have been built so far. By 2020, the Authority will get water from eight different sources, including the Metropolitan Water District and also from the nearby Imperial Valley, from ground and surface water, recycled water and the desalination plant.
FUTURESTRUCTURE.COM
FutureStructure_June14.indd 15
5/13/14 10:17 AM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
15
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
THE BLUE ECONOMY
DC WATER
Þ DC Water General Manager George Hawkins believes technology is a vital part of meeting current and future water demands.
THE SCALE OF THE SYSTEMS AND THE COST TO DELIVER SERVICE EVEN WHEN YOU HAVE ENOUGH SOURCE WATER IS EXTRAORDINARY. — GEORGE HAWKINS, GENERAL MANAGER, DC WATER
“Water should be safe, abundant and affordable,” said Earl Jones, chairman of NEWin. “In reality, a host of challenges — from population growth and urbanization to climate volatility and rising energy demands threaten water resources globally like never before, and will worsen in the coming decades. If we are to address these serious challenges to our water resources we must innovate faster — and not just in our treatment technologies. We must also innovate in how we finance, deliver, maintain and regulate water resources. Yesterday’s solutions simply cannot address today’s challenges.”
going through the roof. DC Water, the agency providing water and sewer service in Washington, D.C., faces decades of deferred maintenance on the system’s 1,300 miles of water mains, 37,000 valves and more than 9,000 fire hydrants. Some of Washington, D.C.’s water mains date back to the 1860s, built shortly after the Civil War. The region also must spend billions of dollars to clean water discharged into Chesapeake Bay. “Obviously places like California and Las Vegas have such water supply challenges that it is by necessity driving a lot of innovation and change because of a very specific and direct capacity limitation. But I would argue the same kinds of issues are driving innovation everywhere in the country, whether or not you’re in a relatively ‘water rich area,’ which is where we
Paying the Bill Past Due Even in areas where drought isn’t as much of a threat and water is usually plentiful, the cost of infrastructure is 16
are here in Washington, D.C.,” said George Hawkins, DC Water’s general manager. During the past five years, DC Water has more than doubled its water rates, Hawkins said, and projections 20 years into the future indicate that rate increases that outpace inflation will be needed every single year. “The scale of the systems and the cost to deliver service even when you have enough source water is extraordinary,” Hawkins said. Like many water utilities across the U.S., DC Water is considering future modifications to its flat retail water rates, including rates that would go up or down with increased usage via a tiered structure. The issue is a political hot potato nationwide, and many agencies continue to grapple with how to alter rate structures fairly.
FUTURESTRUCTURE // THE UNSEEN CITY
FutureStructure_June14.indd 16
5/12/14 2:34 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
Þ CALIFORNIA RESERVOIR LEVELS In 2002, DC Water was one of the first municipal agencies in the nation to install automated meter reading technology. With the meters, the agency can see when usage spikes in a household, and a computer system automatically notifies the user there could be a leaking toilet or other wasteful problem. DC Water is currently installing second-generation smart meters that allow for two-way communication between the meter and the utility, a technology that someday could support real-time pricing. Faced with daunting challenges, DC Water is trying to think of itself more like a consumer-oriented operation than a public agency. Hawkins notes that residents ultimately will decide whether or not to pay the utility’s rates and if displeased could decide to switch to bottled water or other alternative sources. Consequently, DC Water has branded itself with a new logo and gone out into the community, organizing a network of hundreds of locations where citizens can safely refill their reusable water bottles. DC Water is also advertising on the sides of buses and hosting tap water taste tests outside of metro stations and supermarkets. If there’s good news to be had in Washington, D.C., and the rest of the country, it’s that Americans appear willing to pay for safe and reliable water. According to one recent study, 6 in 10 Americans said they are willing to pay a little more each month to upgrade their community’s water system, and 77 percent said they are concerned about the nation’s water infrastructure. But there’s a lot of work to be done. In the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2013 report card on the nation’s infrastructure, dams, drinking water and wastewater all received a D grade, and levees fared even worse with a D-. In the survey conducted by the Governing Institute, when asked what the key barriers are when dealing with traditional water resource problems, the top response (39 percent) was aging water infrastructure. Nationally, water and its associated infrastructure are in dire need of attention. But as the many pockets of innovation that exist prove — like DC Water and San Diego — there is still optimism to tap.
California is in the middle of a dire drought and many of the state’s reservoirs are at all-time lows.
4552
3538
4000
3000
3000
2000
2000
1000
1000
0
Lake Oroville 53% / 66%
0
Lake Shasta 53% / 62%
977 0
Folsom Lake 54% / 75% 2030 1000 0
Don Pedro Reservoir 53% / 73% 1025
0
Lake McClure 27% / 46% 2420 2448
2000
2000
520 1000
1000
0 0
New Melones Lake 39% / 62%
0
Trinity Lake 53% / 65%
Millerton Lake 40% / 57% 1000
2039
0
Pine Flat Reservoir 28% / 47%
1000 0
San Luis Reservoir 47% / 52%
LEGEND 171
325
0
Pyramid Lake 92% / 101%
Castaic Lake 78% / 87%
Capacity (TAF)
Historical Average
% of capacity / % of historical average SOURCE: CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES
FutureStructure_June14.indd 17
5/12/14 2:38 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
RECAPTURING AND R SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
18
FUTURESTRUCTURE // THE UNSEEN CITY
FutureStructure_June14.indd 18
5/9/14 2:16 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
FROM TRASH TO TREASURE
D REPURPOSING OUR GARBAGE FUTURESTRUCTURE.COM FUTURESTRUCTURE.COM
FutureStructure_June14.indd 19
5/9/14 2:17 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
19 19
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
FROM TRASH TO TREASURE
s a society, we’re becoming more conscious of what goes into the products we choose to consume before they get to us. Take our food, for instance. Media coverage, scientific research and a generally increased awareness have brought needed attention to food additives and chemical pesticides. The organic food movement is still booming. The farm-to-table movement has highlighted the virtues of local, healthful and sustainable food production. We aren’t only concerned with what goes into our bodies, but about the constitution of all of the products that come our way. But what happens after we finish with these things? We certainly don’t think about waste in a way that is interconnected with the other systems like water management, energy and beyond. Maybe we should. Closing the loop on waste — and integrating it with other systems — may be more than a noble policy goal. In fact, it may make smart economic sense as well. Waste streams often still contain materials of remarkable value — if they are extracted and used in Fifty-five percent of the right way. Landfill mining America’s waste advocates note that landfills is dumped in landfills and left have a higher concentration to slowly decay. of aluminum than the metalIn comparison, Germany sends lic ore that is normally used as less than 1 pera raw material. The East Bay cent of its trash to landfills, Municipal Utility District in converting 38 California is using food and percent of the rest to energy biowaste to save $3 million per and recycling year and generate more than 62 percent. enough electricity to meet its own needs. “Waste-to-energy” projects are cropping up in Mexico, Canada, Scotland and Norway. And as water rights become an increasingly difficult issue — especially in the American West and South — reusing water from the waste stream is a particularly encouraging prospect. To make this happen, we need to start thinking of waste as a system.
CHAD VANDER VEEN
A
CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT – NO MATTER WHAT PROJECT YOU ARE TRYING TO DEVELOP – IS THE UNDERLYING KEY TO SUCCESS.
Þ
— ROY BUOL, MAYOR, DUBUQUE, IOWA
wealth worldwide and the fact that humans in general produce growing amounts of garbage, are creating rising global waste management problems. Worldwide, the volume of annual municipal solid waste is projected to double — from today’s 1.3 billion tons per year to 2.6 billion tons by 2025. Add to that the fact that e-waste is astronomical, with 1.7 million tons in the U.S. sent to landfills or incinerated in 2010 alone. There are some bright spots. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave solid waste a grade of a B- in its 2013 Report Card on America’s Infrastructure. For comparison’s sake, our energy infrastructure received a D+ and our drinking water a D. For
Talking Trash: Why the Status Quo Isn’t Pretty Trash talk is ugly and garbage isn’t glamorous. The expansion of cities and urbanization, coupled with increasing 20
one, the ASCE report cited large gains in recycling rates. Between 1980 and 2010, the percentage of municipal solid waste (MSW) disposed in landfills decreased by 35 percent and recycling diverted 85 million tons of MSW from landfills in 2010, compared with only 15 million tons in 1980. But despite these gains, the U.S. remains a top trash producer — so much so that our No. 1 export is garbage — and our go-to disposal method is the landfill. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that while the number of landfills has declined over the years, the average size has increased. Fifty-five percent of America’s waste is dumped in these landfills and left to slowly decay. In comparison, Germany sends less than 1 percent of its trash to landfills, converting 38 percent of the
FUTURESTRUCTURE // THE UNSEEN CITY
FutureStructure_June14.indd 20
5/12/14 2:41 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
Þ FARM-TO-FORK-TO-FUEL In 2010, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson launched an initiative that calls for the city to remove 100 percent of organics from landfills by 2020. Last year, several area organizations and companies partnered on the construction of the Sacramento BioDigester, an anaerobic digestion system that converts organic waste into natural gas. Initially, one of the city’s disposal companies was the primary consumer of the natural gas, using it to fuel its fleet of garbage trucks. But in October, the city of Sacramento’s fleet manager, Keith Leech, took notice. “We’re the first government customer that I’m aware of across the country that’s actually putting renewable biomethane compressed natural gas into their trucks,” Leech said. The BioDigester is currently processing about 100 tons of “feedstock” each day, which results in natural gas that is the equivalent of 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel. In addition to the city of Sacramento’s fleet, other local organizations – such as Sacramento State University, Sacramento City Unified School District, Mission Linens and Super Shuttle – have also begun filling up with natural gas generated by the BioDigester. While farm-to-fork-to-fuel is a bit of a mouthful, in truth a better term would be farm-tofork-to-fuel-to-farm. Once the gas is captured, the remaining solids are an excellent composting material that is being sold back to the very farmers who grow Sacramento’s food.
In the U.S., local leaders aren’t convinced their waste infrastructures can get the job done. According to the survey by the Governing Institute, only 6 percent of respondents agreed their community’s waste management infrastructure completely met their needs.
to think about them further. Nobody wonders where, each day, they carry their load of refuse. Outside the city, surely; but each year the city expands, and the street cleaners have to fall farther back. The bulk of the outflow increases and the piles rise higher, become stratified, extend over a wider perimeter. Besides, the more Leonia’s talent for making new materials excels, the more the rubbish improves in quality, resists time, the elements, fermentations, combustions. A fortress of indestructible leftovers surrounds Leonia, dominating it on every side, like a chain of mountains.” Like the residents of Leonia, most of us don’t wonder where the trucks carry
Invisible Waste One of the largest challenges with waste and other utilities is that they are part of a “hidden infrastructure,” a complicated process that takes time and money, but that we don’t fully see and are unlikely to appreciate. Perhaps one of the most beautifully written passages about waste in society was penned by Italo Calvino in his novel Invisible Cities. His description of the city of Leonia captures our attitude toward refuse: “The fact is that street cleaners are welcomed like angels, and their task of removing the residue of yesterday’s existence is surrounded by a respectful silence, like a ritual that inspires devotion, perhaps only because once things have been cast off nobody wants to have
our garbage. We prefer our waste to be invisible — buried in a landfill or shipped someplace else as long as it’s not in our backyard. But we also have an expectation that our waste will be taken care of. In the same way we expect the light to turn on when we flip the switch and the water to run as we turn the knob, trash retrieval seems as certain as death and taxes.
Myopic Focus A second problem with waste management is an issue inherent in government agencies: siloed departments that can make laser-focused decisions. In 2013, Houston’s “One Bin for All” proposal was awarded $1 million by Bloomberg
FUTURESTRUCTURE.COM
FutureStructure_June14.indd 21
5/12/14 2:43 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
21
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
FROM TRASH TO TREASURE
Þ AMERICA’S
Philanthropies. The idea — to have residents discard all materials into a single bin and centrally process and sort them — was proposed largely because of Houston’s dismal recycling rates (14 percent). The city, like many others across America, was putting significant resources into recycling – each day, multiple trucks would go out to pick up waste from multiple bins on multiple routes. It’s hard to argue that recycling isn’t a good policy, but what happens when we look at the carbon emissions increase from having multiple trucks on the road? Is the effort worth the effects? Perhaps not. A study at Washington State University found that test subjects asked to cut paper into strips to evaluate scissors used three times as much paper when they were told a recycling bin was in the room as opposed to Alexandria, when they were told a waste Va., is powering more basket was in the room. than 20,000 homes In looking at cities as syswith the electricity produced from 100 tems, we can begin to see tons of municipal the possible consequences — waste each day. positive or negative — of our policies, infrastructure investments and technological implementations. According to the Governing Institute survey, 67 percent of respondents thought it was important to integrate energy into waste management systems, 51 percent thought it was important to integrate water and 33 percent thought it was important to integrate transportation.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Each category was evaluated on the basis of capacity, condition, funding, future need, operation and maintenance, public safety and resilience.
Aviation Bridges Dams Drinking Water Energy Hazardous Waste Inland Waterways
Þ
Levees Ports
D C+ D D D+ D DDC
Public Parks and Recreation Rail Roads Schools Solid Waste Transit Wastewater
also increasing in popularity. San Francisco’s pledge to attain zero waste by 2020 advocates for citizens to reduce waste first, then reuse, and finally to recycle and compost. Seattle has been moving toward zero waste for more than a decade, with a goal to divert 60 percent of trash from landfills by 2015 (the city was at 55.7 percent in 2012) and 70 percent by 2022. Sacramento’s “farm-to-fork-to-fuel” initiative is one of the best examples of how policies and programs can turn a supply chain mentality to that of a supply cycle. Nonprofit organizations and corporate entities are collaborating to divert organic waste from landfills and turn it into renewable natural gas, which is being used to power public and private vehicles, and create zero waste zones. Dubuque, Iowa, Mayor Roy Buol said getting everyone involved — elected officials, partner organizations and the business community, as well as constituents — is the key to success with all sustainability measures. Buol launched “Sustainable Dubuque,” a bottom-up initiative that brings a coalition of local interests together and gives everyone in the city a chance to contribute ideas
If we look at waste management through a FutureStructure lens, we need to first consider our current policies, programs and people and what ideas could make a difference. One policy gaining prominence — despite being around for decades — are so called “pay as you throw” (PAYT) programs, which provide financial incentives to decrease waste, treating trash as we do other utilities like electricity and water. PAYT has been shown to change consumer behaviors, such as choosing products with less packaging or composting yard waste. Zero waste policies — in which no discards are sent to landfills or designated for high-temperature destruction — are
to move the city forward. Dubuque became an IBM Smarter City in 2010 and has since reduced water and electricity usage and optimized transportation resources. “Citizen involvement — making them part of the process, no matter what project you are trying to develop — is the underlying key to success,” said Buol. “My mantra has always been ‘engaging citizens as partners.’” In Edmonton, Alberta, a city that has a 60 percent landfill diversion rate and is aiming for 90 percent, leaders also advocate for citizen involvement. In working on its plan to hit 90 percent landfill diversion rates, Roy Neehall, general manager of Waste RE-Solutions Edmonton, said, “We did not dictate to residents. We listened, educated, listened.” What the city found was that its residents were “way ahead of politicians and administrators” on this issue. Respondents to the Governing Institute’s research survey agree with Buol and Neehall.
FUTURESTRUCTURE // THE UNSEEN CITY
FutureStructure_June14.indd 22
5/12/14 2:43 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
CC+ D D BD D
SOURCE: AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS
Integrating and Innovating: Policies, Programs and People
22
GPA
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
Sixty-seven percent said that public awareness was an important part of a successful waste management system.
the city clean up this blight and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority was born. Today, after a $4 billion investment in a state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant, the harbor is clean enough for children to swim in and the city to enjoy. The Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant is the key to the harbor’s cleanliness. Each day, 350 million gallons of water travel underground through Boston’s pipes, arriving at the plant for processing. Through a multi-part process, the plant removes all raw sewage — including floatables and other large debris. What is left is a sludge, a mixture of liquefied waste that once would have mixed with the water in the harbor. Now, large eggshaped digesters that act like churning stomachs use bacteria to eat the sludge
Coupling Traditional Infrastructure with Technology Boston provides a great example of how combining hard infrastructure and technology can turn around even the worst environmental conditions. Once known as the “dirtiest harbor in America,” Boston’s waterfront was plagued by sewage and other waste seeping into the Charles River since America’s founding. Sewage and other waste received very limited treatment before being dumped in the harbor, and the water was filthy, poisoned by the waste of the city and its surrounding areas. A federal court order mandated
Municipal waste materials are fed through the waste inlet into a steel reactor vessel called a gasifier, which contains a controlled amount of oxygen or other process gas, such as nitrogen or argon. The plasma gasifier is about 40 feet tall.
(the process known as anaerobic digestion), reducing it by one-third and producing methane gas as a byproduct. This methane is used to create steam and hot water for the facility. Remaining pathogens are killed by chlorine, the chlorine is then neutralized and what is released into the harbor is purified and pristine H20.
Gasification and Pyrolysis Like anaerobic digestion, gasification can also create energy through a waste treatment and recovery process. It works like this: The waste is heated in a lowoxygen environment, which causes some of the waste to combust and the rest to decompose — that then turns into hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane. These gases go to a boiler, which burns them
Þ PLASMA GASIFICATION converts carbon-containing materials
High-pressure gases exit the gasifier through the syngas outlet and power a turbine, which generates electricity to run the gasifier and sell to energy suppliers.
— such as coal, petroleum coke and municipal solid waste or biomass — into a synthesis gas (syngas) composed primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Plasma gasification is emerging as an environmentally friendly way to dispose of garbage. Syngas generated by the process can be used as a fuel to generate electricity or steam. It also can fuel modified diesel or natural-gas engines.
Syngas is a byproduct of the gasification process. The syngas created by plasma gasification consists primarily of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which can be processed into clean-burning fuels.
Plasma torches use electricity and oxygen to create an electric arc. The resultant gas, which is as hot as 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, is called plasma.
Molten waste is disposed of via the metal and slag output. This matter is cooled and can be used for roadbed materials or construction. FUTURESTRUCTURE.COM
FutureStructure_June14.indd 23
5/12/14 2:46 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
23
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
FROM TRASH TO TREASURE
FLICKR/PAUL W
The Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant helps keep the Boston Harbor clean by anaerobically digesting millions of gallons of wastewater.
cleanly and makes steam to run a turbine that produces electricity. Ash, the biggest byproduct of the process, is run through a magnet to capture iron for recycling. The technique is used in Alexandria, Va., which is powering more than 20,000 homes with the electricity produced from 100 tons of municipal waste each day, as well as Indianapolis, where the steam helps power Lucas Oil Stadium and other buildings downtown. The waste-to-energy concept has gained steam over the past several years, but proponents still say the United States is missing opportunities compared to Europe, where waste-to-energy has become the preferred method of disposal. The European Union runs 420 waste-to-energy plants (compared to 87 in the United States), which provide power to 20 million people. The practice is becoming so popular that Norway, which has the largest share of waste-to-energy production, is importing trash to feed its incinerators. One of the reasons the U.S. has been slow to adopt waste-to-energy is the harmful gases produced by combustion emissions. But technology has provided a helping hand, say proponents, and emissions are 80 to 90 percent under limits set by the EPA in facilities like the one in Alexandria. As with any other policy or process, waste-to-energy should be viewed as a component of a community, city or country’s system, and considerations should be made to ensure the process is optimized within the greater whole. 24
Similar to gasification, pyrolysis decomposes waste in the absence of oxygen. Products of pyrolysis include oil, gas and char, or steam that can be used to generate electricity. In Ireland, discarded plastic is turned into fuel through the pyrolysis process — 20 tons of plastic is converted into 19,000 liters of synthetic fuel. A recent study from the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, a division of the University of Illinois, found that fuel derived from non-recycled plastics from waste (such as shopping bags) through pyrolysis was easily compatible with fuels from bio-based and traditional fuel sources, had equally high energy content and was better performing in several other criteria.
Þ WASTE AS
A COMMODITY Increasingly, city and regional stakeholders are changing how they perceive waste. When asked whether their jurisdiction views wastewater and waste products as valuable sources of energy, a large majority at least somewhat agreed.
Disagree 2% Somewhat disagree 7% Strongly disagree 9%
Integrating Waste Management for the Future There is no one-size-fits-all to waste management, but there is a movement toward trying different techniques, sometimes with smaller scale and more flexible technologies that can transform trash. Looking at waste management from all angles and thinking about how reducing, recycling and recovering can work together to promote environment and economic sustainability is a good place to start. In FutureStructure fashion, involving all stakeholders and hearing the point of view of the transportation department, utilities, environmentalists, finance and the collective voice of citizens is absolutely crucial to avoiding a siloed policy that lacks common sense. By doing this we can move firmly from a supply chain to a supply cycle.
Neither agree nor disagree 16%
Somewhat Agree 22%
Agree 31%
Source: Governing Institute Survey
FUTURESTRUCTURE // THE UNSEEN CITY
FutureStructure_June14.indd 24
5/12/14 2:48 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
SOLUTION SPOTLIGHT: AMERICAN CHEMISTRY COUNCIL
WASTE AS A VALUABLE ENERGY RESOURCE States like Ohio Are Embracing Energy Recovery as a Sustainable, Economic Approach to Solid Waste Management
WHEN IT COMES TO A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO ENERGY, the old adage is true: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Today, innovative public sector agencies understand that waste presents an opportunity to create abundant, alternative energy from non-recycled materials. The state of Ohio, among others, has embraced this approach to solid waste management and is encouraging the expansion of facilities that recover energy from waste to boost landfill diversion rates and generate economic growth. Ohio’s approach to energy recovery included leadership from the state’s Third Frontier program and NorTech, a public-private partnership, to support Ohio-based technology companies such as RES Polyflow and Vadxx Energy, each of which works to create renewable, sustainable energy from waste. These companies are taking items that cannot be economically recycled and, instead of sending them to landfills, are converting them to synthetic crude oil, raw materials, electricity and fuel. Earlier this year, Vadxx worked closely with the city of Akron, Ohio, to break ground on its 25,000-square-foot energy recovery facility that will eventually process 60 tons of non-recycled used plastics every day. Vexor Technologies, an established energy company in Ohio, produces 100 tons of renewable energy each day, some of which is used as a replacement for coal by Ohio’s concrete and lime industries. “The state of Ohio, with the support of Gov. Kasich, has helped to drive a multimillion dollar expansion of our company’s
Sponsored Content
facilities in Ohio,” said Joe Waters, vice president of Vexor Technologies. “Our state’s legislative and regulatory leaders have been champions in supporting companies that are looking to invest in technologies that generate sustainable energy and reduce landfill waste.” If other states were to take a similarly proactive approach, and nationally all non-recycled wastes — including textiles, carpet, tires and electronic waste — were converted into alternative fuels or energy instead of heading to the local landfill, enough energy would be created to power millions of cars each year. To capitalize on waste as an energy resource, state and local governments should modernize solid waste laws and regulations to make certain that definitions of “renewable energy” are broadened to include all municipal solid waste and streamline regulations to accelerate the approval process for energy recovery facilities. The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has included energy recovery as part of its “From Chemistry to Energy” campaign, which supports an all-of-the-above approach to domestic energy in the United States. Our nation’s energy policy must harness all of America’s viable energy sources, including recovering energy from waste to continue creating the innovative products and jobs our economy needs, strengthen our economy, make our domestic energy supplies go further than ever and improve our energy security.
To learn more about ACC and its role in renewable energy, visit: www.FromChemistrytoEnergy.com
FS14 SS ACC Q1.indd 1
5/12/14 11:46 AM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
FEATURE TITLE
he harnessing of fossil fuels over the last century and a half has enabled the enormous shift of human populations to cities that we are experiencing today. For the first time in human history, more people live in cities than the countryside. Carbon energy has enabled this shift and allowed societies to achieve levels of economic prosperity and consumption never experienced before. Yet we face a need for transformation toward renewable sources of energy, and conserving other resources like water, as the very success of applying fossil energy is undermining the viability of the modern age. Going forward, as cities work to build
T
The Soft Infrastructure of Energy The way in which soft infrastructures of regulation, codes, conventions and laws interact with the hard infrastructures of pipes, wires, roads and buildings needs to be unraveled in order to help us transition off our current dependencies and toward new solutions. Urban hard and soft infrastructure is made up of
GENERATING POST-CARBON
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
26 26
more sustainable and resilient communities, the soft infrastructure — the ideas, laws and policies — that has served us since the industrial age, must be reconsidered. In essence, we must begin to plan and implement a post-carbon city and do so through planning our FutureStructure.
CLEAN ENERGY CITIES WILL REQUIRE CHA
FUTURESTRUCTURE FUTURESTRUCTURE // // TITLE THETO UNSEEN COME CITY
FutureStructure_June14.indd 26
5/12/14 2:51 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
many components and changes slowly over time. The basic architecture of the city usually remains the same, due to zoning codes, soft infrastructure rules, roads, sewage connections and other hard infrastructure that has been built to deliver services 24/7. This architecture is organized by the segregation of land uses: single family, multiple family, commercial, institutional, industrial — a legacy of the turn of the 20th century when housing was built next to industrial sites, when roads were not paved so that housing was exposed to dust, and when there was little or no infrastructure to capture runoff or sewage.
Such urban environments contributed to suburbanization for those who could afford to leave the inner city, and further segregation of land uses. The structure of this new urban form led to reliance on streetcars, then the automobile, and over time, less livable neighborhoods due to the distances between living, work and services. Today we are seeing a slow questioning of this land-use pattern so people can enjoy less automobile-dependent lifestyles and facilitate a transition toward a city that relies on renewable sources of energy. This means changes in the fundamental structure of a city and in the soft infrastructure of zoning, building codes and conventions.
Many parts of the nation’s infrastructure grid are old, and need replacement or updating, as evidenced by the American Society of Civil Engineers’ D+ grade for the nation’s infrastructure as a whole. However, the deteriorated state of infrastructure also offers opportunities for fundamental change. The first step in doing this means modernizing the soft infrastructure of cities. This first step can prove a difficult one to take, however, given the tangled nature of regulatory authority over infrastructure. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has jurisdiction over interstate electricity sales, wholesale electric rates, hydroelectric licensing, natural gas pricing
THE ON CITY
HANGES IN BOTH POLICY AND TECHNOLOGY FUTURESTRUCTURE.COM FUTURESTRUCTURE.COM 27 27
FutureStructure_June14.indd 27
5/12/14 2:52 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
GENERATING THE POST-CARBON CITY
AB 32: Passed in 2006, Assembly Bill 32 requires California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020.
grid, as well as in the soft infrastructures of habit, regulatory oversight and business models. Change is difficult; alternative renewable energy has been developed by conventional utilities and by energy entrepreneurs who wish to sell the new power to the utilities. Distribution infrastructure, and distributed generation solar systems, make this kind of grid integration even more complex as utilities have to deal with multiple individuals and systems. The Edison Electric Institute has referred to alternative energy and distributed generation as a “disruptive technology” due to the potential impact on the utility business model and the problems of integrating new energy producers that generate at different times of day. Yet despite the disruptive nature of renewables and distributed generation, the Governing Institute survey found that 63 percent of respondents said new generation facilities are needed to support more livable cities. Forty-five percent said distribution was equally as important, and 49 percent of respondents said their jurisdiction’s existing energy infrastructure does not meet current needs. Distributed generation is growing, but the disruptive technology problem and lack of flexibility of the grid to integrate energy produced by solar means the hard infrastructure of electricity distribution must be upgraded and altered. We know that power surges
and oil pipeline rates, among other responsibilities. Organizations like state public utilities commissions (PUC) set rates for investor-owned utilities, which can require conservation investments and new technologies and programs to pave the way for renewable electricity generation by requiring utilities to provide a certain percentage of their fuel mix from renewables. Meanwhile, state public utilities regulate private water companies and can require them to deploy conservation programs to reduce water use. Sixty-three Codes for water quality have percent of respondents been developed and are enforced said new generaby health departments and state tion facilities are needed to water departments, as well as the support more EPA. These organizations have livable cities. required water delivering entities as well as wastewater managers to implement standards to protect public health. Cities, too, have their own building codes; road specifications; and other infrastructure rules, regulations, rates, policies and procedures. On top of it all, some infrastructures — energy, for example — coexist and interact at federal, state and local levels. For a renewable and resilient energy system to develop, all of these different nested and tiered regulatory structures and agreements must co-evolve.
Þ
The Disruption of Distribution In the energy realm, renewables such as solar and wind are increasingly coming on line, fitting uneasily in the existing 28
during the day may cause stress on the system, and storage is needed for the night. There are promising ideas and technologies, including the recent proposal by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, and Lyndon Rive, CEO of Solar City, to build a massive, 10 million square-foot battery factory for energy storage. “It is going to be a really giant facility,” Musk told investors during a February conference call. “We are doing something that’s comparable to all lithium-ion production in the world in one factory.” But to move forward, both Musk and Rive have stressed the importance of thoughtful regulation — a component of soft infrastructure — for their success. Regulation (or perhaps an over-abundance of it) may serve as a clue why in March, Tesla, a California-based company, crossed the Golden State off its list of potential sites to build the $5 billion battery factory, choosing instead to focus on Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas — states with a more business-friendly reputation. Though the company gave no official reason for bypassing its home state, a March 7 feature in the Los Angeles Times points to the expensive and bureaucratic nature of doing business in California.
Fossil Fuel’s Evolving Role Presently, renewable energy does little to alleviate the pressure to maintain grid reliability. This has led to continued reliance on back up generation by fossil fuels, such as natural gas, or even diesel engines. For example, with the closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in
FUTURESTRUCTURE // THE UNSEEN CITY
FutureStructure_June14.indd 28
5/12/14 2:55 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
Southern California, the California PUC permitted new natural gas peaker power plants — plants that only operate when demand is at its peak. This undermines a transition to a more decentralized, distributed generation grid organization by baking carbon into the grid. There are many motivations for such a policy but there is no doubt it slows the adoption of renewable solutions for energy reliability. One alternative would be to match electricity use by meter, solar capacity, and feeder and load capacity. By carefully targeting distributed solar investments to beef up the grid where load capacities are weak and summer demand is high, coupled with new battery backup technologies, fossil generation backup would be less necessary. One issue, however, is the lack of data reporting. Few places in the country report energy use at the meter level, inhibiting sophisticated energy planning, energy efficiency investments (and their tracking over time), as well as data on the distribution grid at a neighborhood or distribution substations. More transparency at this level would make energy planning more effective.
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
HB 5205: Introduced in 2013, Michigan House Bill 5205 aims to develop standards for the development of clean energy, renewable energy, and energy optimization.
SB 375: Passed in 2008, Senate Bill 375 sets regional emissions reduction targets for passenger vehicles in California.
Þ COLORADO TO BUILD ONE OF THE NATION’S LARGEST SOLAR ARRAYS YOU’D BE FORGIVEN if the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Colorado is not a massive solar power facility. But it turns out that in certain parts of Colorado, few places are better suited to transform sunshine into electricity. “There are a lot of things about Colorado that are really attractive to a solar developer,” said Chris Markuson, Pueblo County’s director of economic development and GIS. Markuson said that in Pueblo County’s case, the thinner atmosphere at high elevation, flat landscape and more than 300 days of sunshine per year make Pueblo County ideal. Additionally the region has a lot of existing transmission capacity, which is often the Achilles’ heel of renewable energy development. “We identified through GIS a series of locations that would lend themselves to ideal positions for solar,” Markuson said. “All of those things together really position Colorado, and specifically Pueblo County, as an attractive place to do renewable energy production.” Add to that progressive legislative mandates for increased renewable energy production in the state and
Building Soft Infrastructure Standards While renewable energy advocates are understandably gung-ho about deploying new technology quickly, the regulatory and policy environment operates at a much more deliberate pace. Localities are often more agile than state legislatures, which is why cities are ideal laboratories for new energy
it starts to become clear why Xcel Energy — a Minneapolis-based energy utility — and the Pennsylvania-based company Community Energy Solar Inc. settled on Pueblo County for a 900acre plot on which to place 450,000 mono-crystalline photovoltaic panels. The $200 million facility is scheduled to be operational in mid-2016 and will provide enough power for 31,000 homes. Over the course of the project’s estimated 25-year life, Community Energy says it will produce more than 6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 3.5 million tons. The project is also expected to be a boost for Pueblo County’s economy. “We’re really excited about this project because it’s so large – 450,000 solar panels to be installed,” Markuson said. “It’s going to take a fair amount of manpower to get that in place. We anticipate a couple hundred construction jobs for 15 to 16 months. The overall investment in this array is going to be about $200 million, which is a sizable shot in the arm for Pueblo.”
FUTURESTRUCTURE.COM
FutureStructure_June14.indd 29
5/12/14 2:56 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
29
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
GENERATING THE POST-CARBON CITY
CSR.HONDA.COM
technologies. However, states wield a mighty big stick in energy policy decision-making. On the bright side, many legislatures are actively working toward establishing soft infrastructure standards that will help chart a cleaner course going forward. In Michigan, for example, legislation specific to waste energy recovery — e.g. capturing and repurposing waste heat or regenerative braking technology — is being considered. House Bill 5205, introduced in December, aims to “promote the development of clean energy, renewable energy, and energy optimization through the implementation of a clean, renewable, and energy efficient standard.” In California, the state’s recycling agency, CalRecycle, has begun hosting public workshops to gather data about how it might be able to broaden efforts to incorporate energy recovery technology as well. Energy recovery is a key part of the state’s waste management plan, and an essential Few places complement to California’s in the country increased recycling efforts. report energy use at the meter CalRecycle typifies what pollevel, inhibiting icy makers should do — and sophisticated energy planning that is encouraging policies and efficiency that maximize recycling and investments. encourage energy recovery. Whether it’s renewable energy, waste energy recovery or any other new technology, if these systems are to serve as a source of constant and substantial electricity, they will require zoning, building, health and safety codes to evolve and remain regulated. Batteries, for example, are a pivotal technology that promises to fundamentally change energy systems. But batteries as we know them today can overheat, catch on fire and/or explode. Having batteries in buildings distributed across the landscape will require the evolution of safety codes to ensure they will not cause a hazard. New building regulations requiring better energy performance are also part of the soft infrastructure. The California Energy Commission is requiring all new residential buildings after 2020 to be zero net energy buildings. The technology to
Þ In March, the University of California, Davis, unveiled a 2,000 square-foot, zero net energy house as part of its West Village planned community, the largest such planned housing development in the United States.
do so exists and is proven. In March, the University of California, Davis, unveiled a 2,000 square-foot, zero net energy house as part of its West Village planned community, the largest such planned housing development in the United States.
Þ
30
Þ POLICY CHANGES
FOR MORE LIVABLE CITIES
What soft infrastructure policy changes need to occur to enable a more effective and efficient energy system to support livable cities? Political will 63% Changing consumer behaviors 56% Innovative leaders and technology providers 55% New funding models 39% Other 6%
SOURCE: GOVERNING INSTITUTE SURVEY
Everything from solar to geothermal to LED lighting and even advanced concrete makes the house generate more energy than it consumes. These technologies will offer consumers control over how their homes both use and produce energy. Cities across the country are adopting green building standards, either those of the Green Building Council or their own, which is altering the hard infrastructure of development. In fact, according to the EPA, more than 275 cities, counties, tribes and states have created building codes or building programs to increase the environmental and health performance of their communities. Historically, soft and hard infrastructures have reinforced each other over time and have created interdependencies. As cities and regions work toward becoming smarter, these interdependencies can be leveraged by applying technology to better understand how they are connected. Linking the built infrastructure with sustainability goals of making less energy- and materialsintensive cities is of vital importance and, as such, will require changes in not only hard and soft infrastructures but in political leadership and attitude.
FUTURESTRUCTURE // THE UNSEEN CITY
FutureStructure_June14.indd 30
5/12/14 2:57 PM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
SPONSORS
Dennis McKenna originated the concept of FutureStructure and serves as its “lead developer,” building on nearly three decades of research and reporting at the intersection of technology and government. As cofounder and CEO of e.Republic, McKenna is the architect of national conversations about making government and communities better: through the websites and pages of Governing, Government Technology, Public CIO and Emergency Management; and through the work of the Governing Institute and Center for Digital Government.
environmental justice, habitat conservation efforts, water and energy policy. Her book, Transforming California, the Political History of Land Use in the State, is the definitive work on land use politics and policies of California. Dr. Pincetl has a PhD in Urban Planning and teaches at UCLA. Jeana Bruce Bigham is the Custom Content Specialist for e.Republic’s Custom Media department. She is passionate about simple, innovative technologies that improve the lives of citizens and help transform communities. She has held various positions within the Center for Digital Government and the Center for Digital Education, including Editor of Converge magazine, Director of Publications and Director of Custom Media. Bigham earned a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, Columbia. She resides in St. Louis.
Chad Vander Veen is the Editor of FutureStructure and FutureStructure.com. Vander Veen has been with e.Republic for the better part of a decade. He previously worked as an Event Director in Government Technology’s Executive Events division and also served as that magazine’s Associate Editor. In 2013 Vander Veen served as a Public Information Officer for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. He returned to e.Republic to help oversee the FutureStructure initiative. Vander Veen has a degree in Government from the University of Redlands. Dr. Stephanie Pincetl is a Professor in Residence and founding Director of the Center for Sustainable Communities at the UCLA Institute of the Environment. Dr. Pincetl has written extensively about land use in California,
Bob Graves. M.S., Associate Director of the Governing Institute, is the designated content curator for the FutureStructure initiative and also a co-founder of e.Republic, the parent organization of Governing. As Associate Director, Graves is an expert on smart and sustainable approaches to water, waste, energy, transportation and building systems, drawing from his more than 25 years of experience working with private sector companies, nonprofits and state and local governments.
Dr. Paul Taylor, Editor-at-Large, Governing Marina Leight, Sr. Vice President, Governing Ashley Bradley, Special Reports Editor Rebecca Johnson, Director of Custom Media Sarah Graybill, Special Report Program Manager, Custom Media Kelly Martinelli, Chief Design Officer Michelle Hamm, Creative Director
The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. www.centerdigitalgov.com
The Governing Institute advances better government by focusing on improved outcomes through research, decision support and executive education to help public sector leaders govern more effectively. www.governing.com/gov-institute
ÞTo learn more about FutureStructure or how to get involved as an underwriter, contact Chad Vander Veen, Editor, FutureStructure at
[email protected].
Both are divisions of e.Republic. FUTURESTRUCTURE.COM
FutureStructure_June14.indd 31
5/13/14 10:16 AM
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
31
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
Registration Now Open! Early Full Registration Rates
Reinventing Transportation in our Connected World
Nonmembers $1260 Members $1145 U.S. Public Sector $1000 Michigan Public Sector $700
September 7-11 | Detroit, Michigan Join us as the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) proudly hosts the 2014 World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems in partnership with ERTICO and ITS Asia-Pacific in Detroit, Michigan. More than 10,000 of the world’s leading transportation policymakers, researchers, high-tech innovators, engineers, and business professionals from more than 65 countries will gather with the goal of bringing greater levels of safety, efficiency, sustainability and connectivity to transportation systems worldwide. The 2014 ITS World Congress will host keynotes from the industry’s leading CEO’s, interactive technology showcases with live demonstrations on Michigan’s Belle Isle, more than 250 programmatic panels, roundtables, and interactive town hall sessions, a 350,000 square-foot exhibit area in the newly refurbished Cobo Hall, as well as numerous networking events with transportation and technology leaders from across the world.
*see website for complete list
Hurry! Prices rise June 16, 2014
Produced by:
Co-hosts:
www.itsworldcongress.org | #ITSWC14 Sponsors:
Special Report
100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-932-1300 5
25
50
75
BLACK
95 100
__________Designer __________CreativeDir. __________Editorial __________Prepress
5
25
50
75
95 100
YELLOW
5
25
50
75
95 100
5
25
50
75
MAGENTA CYAN
95 100
Page #
__________Other ____________OK to go
