Publisher's Synopsis
This project was initiated in response to pressures that water utilities face to be responsive to growing environmental concerns and changing federal requirements for water quality. The lack of a clear understanding of what environmental leadership means has made it difficult for water utility managers to know how to respond to environmental concerns in their community. This project was designed to accomplish the following objectives: 1) Identify the fundamental characteristics of environmental leadership based on input from drinking water utility managers and environmental stakeholders. 2) Identify examples of environmental leadership by drinking water utilities. 3) Assess the views of drinking water utility managers, residential water utility customers, and environmental stakeholders about the role a drinking water utility should play in environmental leadership. 4) Solicit from environmental stakeholders and water utility managers their suggestions for strategies that water utility managers can use to evolve their utilities into environmental leaders. 5) Describe basic strategies for environmental leadership in sufficient detail so that the managers of drinking water utilities can easily modify the strategies as appropriate, then apply them to their own utilities. By being perceived as an environmental leader, water utilities will be better positioned to endure a crisis in public opinion when environmental problems do occur because the general public is more likely to believe that the water utility has done everything it could to prevent the problem.
