Ross & Associates Environmental Consulting, Ltd.

Ross & Associates worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Water to develop a program that will enable water and wastewater utilities to develop and implement long-range plans that account for climate change impacts. Specifically, Ross & Associates was responsible for convening a 21 member Working Group composed of a broad range of water sector stakeholders representing water utilities; state, local, and tribal governments; and academic and environmental organizations. Additionally, Federal Partners, from EPA, USACE, NOAA and other federal agencies participated in Working Group meetings and served as technical experts. Per a charge from the National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC), the Working Group evaluated the concept of “Climate Ready Water Utilities” and provided recommendations to the NDWAC on use of an adaptive response framework to identify and implement climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies; ways to integrate this framework into existing complementary programs; identification of existing and needed climate change-related tools; and mechanisms to provide recognition or incentives that facilitate broad adoption of climate change strategies by the water sector. In addition to process support for the Working Group, Ross & Associates supported between-meeting Task Team work, provided strategic planning and logistical support for the process, prepared a synthesis of key resources, drafted all the working documents, and was responsible for collecting, organizing, and synthesizing comments and conducting all major revisions to the final report.