What does success look like for your organization?

Challenge - protecting your water source: Your governing body and your ratepayers need to get on board with a source water protection plan, and agree to invest in making that plan a reality.

Solution: We’ve found that when it comes to Western water, there’s no ‘blue’ or ‘red’. If you’ve got a smart plan, you’ll be successful no matter how your community leans politically. We coach your senior team, help you build communications and business models for implementation and make connections with organizations that have already gone down this path.

Challenge – advancing allyship: You know that the ethnic and cultural makeup of your rate payer or supporter base is changing – and you know that in order to be successful with the funding and conservation initiatives needed, this emerging majority in the American West could be some of your strongest allies. Where do you start?

There are two over-arching reasons to the ‘why be allies’ with water justice leaders and low-income communities of color in the time of this climate emergency.  The first reason is a practical one. People of color will be the majority group in many western states in the next few years. Voting in these communities is increasing. Cities and water utilities are going to need all the allies they can get to get the political support essential to funding water-climate-resiliency projects.

The second goes to the heart of what it means to be a westerner. The rapidly changing climate in the American West has already brought disproportional misery to low-income, people of color communities. If we're committed to building resilient communities in the face of climate change, all communities' perspectives and strengths are essential.

Solution: Entities that embed the core values of ‘allyship’ and water justice – internally and externally – will be successful. Ultimately, that success could like passing a bond measure for forest restoration, getting large-scale community buy-in for your recycled water program, community-wide adoption of a climate adaption water security plan, or allying with low-income communities to, for example, remove lead pipes, advocate for air quality and public health. We provide your leadership with the connections and training for genuine, candid allyship.

 Challenge - protecting & restoring vital forests: There’s a critical public forested landscape and watershed that your organization has been working to protect and restore. Getting this work to scale will take a lot of funding and political clout – how do you build a powerful campaign? Where do you start – and where do you go – working with the US Forest Service?

Solution: We work with land-based NGOs to build the powerful partnerships you need. We provide the connections with the public agencies and downstream water users you need on board, and bring the best of what’s worked and what doesn’t from other communities. We advise your senior team on how to build a powerful campaign.  

Challenge – toxic algae outbreaks: Once again, the upstream reservoir operators (e.g. Army Corps, Reclamation) have called with a heads up that there might be a toxic algae outbreak for your water supply in the next few months. Your treatment plant can’t handle a lot. What approaches are others taking and how would they apply to your issues?

Solution: We work with water utilities and municipalities to address both the immediate emergency and identify steps to mitigate this problem going forward. This includes effective communications with your decision makers and rate payers, along with state-of-the-art technical fixes.

Challenge – unhoused folks: You get a call yet again from one of your decision makers: “Those people are camping again in our watershed! Call the cops and get them moved out!”

Solution: Around the West, public agencies, social service NGOs, water utilities and municipalities are partnering to thoughtfully and humanly address this challenge. We coach your senior team and link you with leaders in other agencies dealing with the same problem.

What Works

1.   Partnerships

2.   Actionable science

3.   Equitable water use

Headwaters restoration in New Mexico, new funding in Flagstaff, tackling climate change and supply in the Willamette Basin, negotiations in the Colorado Basin, clean drinking water in California, effective climate change communications – these are all examples of successful work by leaders in the Confluence West network.

Confluence West is building on those and other successes.