ELI examines the relationship between infrastructure for water, sewer, and stormwater management, and finance and development decisions. The program evaluates practices and promotes the sustainable use of water and the connection between sewer infrastructure and smart growth.
Priority Areas of Expertise and Resources:
- In 2017 and 2018, ELI collaborated with Amigos Bravos to develop a series of workshops and fact sheets on green infrastructure, along with a guide intended to help local governments incorporate public input into green infrastructure projects.
- ELI examined potential legal obstacles and promising pathways for state and municipal leaders to modify the current stormwater management regime so as to more easily incorporate pragmatic consideration of climate change in Green Infrastructure for Chesapeake Stormwater Management: Legal Tools for Climate Resilient Siting.
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Using Pennsylvania as a case study, ELI issued a series of working papers in 2010-2011 that examine new approaches to funding the rehabilitation of sewer infrastructure in older urban municipalities:
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Pennsylvania's State Water Plan: What Now? (2011), examines opportunities to improve integrated water management, and some needs for legislation and funding support
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Funding Green Infrastructure on a Watershed Basis: Lessons from the Pennypack Experience (2011), ELI identified basic reforms that could make green infrastructure easier to fund on a multi-municipal basis.
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Concept for Pennsylvania Urban Sewer Rehabilitation Funding (2010), ELI examines a new approach to funding the rehabilitation of sewer infrastructure in older urban municipalities.
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In 2008, ELI worked in partnership with 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania to issue Regional and Collaborative Approaches to Water, Sewer, and Stormwater Management in Pennsylvania. The report explores working examples of collaborative municipal and regional approaches to water resources and infrastructure management.
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In 2005, ELI issued Wet Growth: Should Water Law Control Land Use? (2005) offers new ideas about the land/water interface in law and policy and provides an overview of the relevant issues, current trends toward integrating land and water controls, and prospects for further progress.
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In 2005, the Institute released Planning for Development and Sewage Infrastructure: Can We Be Consistent? The study uses Pennsylvania as a case study to examine how sewage infrastructure affects land use planning.
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In 2001, the Northeast-Midwest Institute issued an ELI report, Smart Growth and the Clean Water Act, which examines the relationship of three Clean Water Act programs to patterns of land use and development. The study also identifies ways in which federal, state, and local governments can reduce compliance costs and increase environmental benefits through the mutually reinforcing components of smart growth strategies and CWA programs.
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In 1999, ELI published Plumbing the Future: Sewage Infrastructure Sustainability in Western Pennsylvania. The report discusses the relationship between sewage infrastructure decisions in southwestern Pennsylvania and effects on the urban, suburban, and rural landscape of the region.