Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

Regulatory Perspectives for the Water Utilities
A Mountain Quest Institute Report
As finding or sustaining high-quality water resources becomes increasingly difficult and
drinking water is recognized world-wide as a scarce resource, emerging research in water
treatment and wastewater and solid waste treatment will offer new opportunities. New
processes and procedures will focus on improved efficiency and effectiveness in terms of the
services and products provided, customer perceptions and needs, and environmental
requirements. As called out in the WaterRF Strategic Research Plan and the National
Research Council’s “Public Water Supply Distribution Systems Assessing and Reducing Risks”
First Report (2005), environmental regulations will continue to be promulgated and the
regulations will complicate new resource development and require more sophisticated water
treatment. Specifically, the collective mandates of the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water
Act, and Safe Drinking Water Act will increase the cost of treatment and water supply
development and continued tightening of drinking water regulations will drive decisions
regarding the feasibility of maintaining high quality water from centralized, sophisticated
treatment plants through distributions systems. Recognizing the potential of KM strategies and
initiatives to offer value to changing expectations and requirements in the water utilities,
WaterRF continues to sponsor research to help utilities assess and transition their unique
organizational structures and cultures to enable implementation of KM strategies and initiatives.
In September 2001 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined the practices
in five agencies that helped empower front-line employees. The practices—all aimed at
improving performance—included demonstrated top leadership commitment, delegation of
decision-making to front-line employees, training and education, the use of teams and employee
and union involvement in planning and sharing performance information. (GAO, 2001) This
effort built on the earlier Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 to address resultsoriented
goals, improve performance and assure accountability. In May 2000, the Office of
Management and Budget issued a bulletin that called for agencies to use workforce planning to
redistribute higher-level positions to front-line, service delivery positions that interact with
citizens. In their cover letter to the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight of
Government, the GAO stated: “As our studies of private and public sector organizations have
shown, high performing organizations focus on valuing and investing in their employees—
human capital—and on aligning their ‘people policies’ to support organizational performance
goals … the Administration’s emphasis on workforce planning and restructuring will require
federal agencies to examine how they can flatten their organizational hierarchy and improve
their work processes.”
In March 2006, the GAO issued a report to Congressional Requesters on Information
Sharing. This report examines the status of efforts to establish government-wide information
sharing policies and processes with specific focus on terrorism-related and sensitive but
unclassified information. While designers and operators of wastewater and stormwater
infrastructures have considered the potential impact of severe natural events (floods,
hurricanes, blizzards, earthquakes, etc.) for decades, the possible effects of intentional acts by
domestic or international terrorists is a new focus of concern. The Public Health Security and
Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (PL 107-188) required U.S. drinking
water systems that serve populations greater than 3,300 people to conduct vulnerability
assessments. According to EPA statistics, approximately 4800 water utilities serving over 256
million people fit into this category. These vulnerability assessments require periodic reviews
and updates/modifications on risk acceptability and proposed upgrades. The water utility
response to the recent GAO report would include establishing utility-wide policies and
processes for sharing vulnerability assessment information—mobilizing knowledge—with
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