(115c) Epa's Research and Development Program for Innovative Water Technologies

Thomas F. Speth

The EPA’s Administrator Lisa Jackson has released a drinking water strategy to protect public health from contaminants in drinking water.  An element of this strategy is to foster development of new drinking water technologies to address health risks posed by a broad array of contaminants.  Specifically, EPA wishes to 1) develop, identify, and evaluate drinking water systems of the future that have minimal carbon and water footprints and are more sustainable than current practices; 2) conduct strategic demonstration projects with small communities to address a broad suite of contaminants while maintaining safe drinking water through their distribution systems at reasonable and predictable costs; 3) develop infrastructure management that accommodates the new generation of technologies and monitoring strategies.  As part of this effort, the EPA along with the Small Business Administration are catalyzing the formation of a water technology innovation cluster that involves industry, government, academia, and non-government organization partners working together to bring novel technologies to the drinking water market.  Emphasis is being placed on systems-based approaches that will utilize and benefit from integrated trans-disciplinary research.  This presentation will address the rationale for the program and the efforts that are currently underway.