Press Release

 Leaders In Water Industry

ATLANTA – This week, Atlanta will host the One Water Summit 2016, a national gathering of thought leaders from across and beyond the water sector.  The conference, focusing on innovations in water project delivery and financing, partnerships for progress, community engagement, and policy, and more, begins Wednesday, June 8 and ends Friday, June 10.

The One Water Summit will convene more than 450 chief executive officers, non-profit managers, municipal leaders, and sustainability directors from across the country. The conference also includes dozens of workshop sessions, giving participants the opportunity to address a wide range of issues, models and approaches. Summit participants will engage in plenaries that foster constructive conversations about how communities can secure a sustainable water future. Participants will also have the opportunity to visit the Atlanta’s green infrastructure stormwater projects, the former Bellwood Quarry as a part of the Water Supply Program, Emory University’s WaterHub and the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper Floating Classroom.

The opening plenary, “One Water, One Future,” will take place on Thursday, June 9 at 9 a.m. in the Imperial Ballroom at the Marriot Marquis. During this session, guest speakers Stephanie Stuckey Benfield, Director, City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and Doug Hooker, Executive Director of Atlanta Regional Commission, will address the challenges the City of Atlanta faces on a daily basis. Rapid growth, development patterns, climate change and the accessibility of sustainable water resources all affect our community.

Many communities, including Flint, Michigan, struggle with the affordability of water for customers, a topic that will be addressed at the Affordability and Water session, Thursday, June 9 at 2 p.m., featuring Gary Brown, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, Julius Ciaccia, Northeast Ohio Sewer District, and Monique Lin-Luse, Assistant Council of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. The featured speakers will highlight a collective approach that is needed to ensure that households have reliable and affordable water and wastewater services.

On Wednesday, June 8, the US Water Prize will be awarded to three organizations that are leaders in sustainable and integrated water resource management. This year’s US Water Prize winners are DC Water, (Walter F. Bailey Bioenergy Facility), Dow, (Minimal Liquid Discharge), and Emory University, (WaterHub: Campus-scale Water Reclamation System). The US Water Prize ceremony will be held at the Georgia Aquarium, Wednesday at 5:00 p.m.

For more information, please visit www.uswateralliance.org and follow the live social conversation at #OneWater16.

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