Lots of places around the country are wrestling with sustainability issues.
Here are a few examples:
New York protecting water, livelihoods
New York City (NYC) and rural upstate New York seem unlikely places where urban
and rural people would join together to work for sustainability. There is a
long history of strong differences and, at times, animosity between NYC and
the communities in upstate New York. But residents of these areas have come
together on behalf of clean city water and a sustainable rural working and natural
landscape in upstate New York. Everyone is benefiting.
The 8 million people in New York City are lucky to have some of the cleanest
municipal water in the world. Most of it comes from a 1,600 square mile watershed
in the Catskill Mountains, 125 miles to the north. This watershed is a patchwork
of mountains, forests, small towns and family farms—a working landscape.
In 1990, trouble loomed. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandated
that all public supplies of surface water be filtered for microbes. New York
State found it would need to spend $4 to $6 billion to build filtering facilities.
After years of conflict and negotiations, NYC and more than 30 watershed communities
came up with the "New York City Watershed Agreement." The plan will
sustain the rural residents, their landscape and way of life while protecting
the quality of New York’s water supply without filtration, saving the city
millions of dollars.
With the plan, the City is freed from filtering water from the Catskill watershed,
provided it meets 66 EPA "filtration avoidance criteria." In other
words, if the water stays clean, it doesn’t have to be filtered.
The Catskills communities and landowners are required to closely regulate development
and resource use to protect water quality. In return, they receive millions
of dollars to help pay for programs to protect water quality and land use.
For example, New York City will spend $550 million to improve water quality
including upgrading aging sewage treatment plants and replacing failing septic
systems in the Catskill watershed area. Dairy farmers and foresters will be
trained to protect water quality.
Another $666 million is allocated for conservation easements and partnership
programs to protect forest lands. The State of New York is contributing funds
in some of these efforts.
"It’s always easier to perpetuate an ‘Us’ versus ‘Them’
mentality," said Alan White, forest program manager for the Watershed Agricultural
Council and administrator of the Agreement’s farm and forest practices.
"But this is really a ‘We.’ It is their watershed, but it is
our livelihood."
Other notable sustainability efforts include:
Santa Monica has made significant progress towards meeting goals in 9 of 16 categories in the past decade. Where goals are not easily measurable, they are revised or revamped with considerable citizen and business input.