Focus Areas
The Focus Area Program is a new research program that enables the Foundation to solve broadly relevant subscriber issues and challenges with a targeted, sustained research effort. The program is developed around research focus areas; discrete, high-priority problems to be solved, or opportunities to be realized, for subscribers.
In January 2012, the Foundation’s Board of Trustees approved the initial 10 Focus Areas. These were identified through a comprehensive review of existing research and input from Foundation stakeholders, most notably a subscriber needs assessment conducted in mid‐2011.
Foundation staff then convened Technical Advisory Committees (TACs) to develop a multi-year research agenda for each Focus Area. In April 2012, TAC-recommended agenda and specific research projects were evaluated by the Focus Area Council (FAC) that approved funding for the following list of projects. View the final list of these projects that has been released as RFPs.
1. Hexavalent Chromium: Filling Critical Knowledge Gaps to Inform Effective Rulemaking and Customer Communication: By 2016, develop national occurrence data, evaluate treatment technologies, quantify compliance costs, and develop effective communication tools for utilities.
Project #4450, Impact of Water Quality on Hexavalent Chromium Removal Efficiency and Cost
2. Water Utility Infrastructure: Applying Risk Management Priniciples to Effectively Manage Deteriorating Infrastructure: By 2017, provide utilities with tools and strategies to optimize the use of condition assessment and risk management in making infrastructure renewal decisions, and the use of innovative renewal techniques.
Project #4451, Utility Risk Management Methodologies for Buried Assets with Improved Triple Bottom Line Understanding of Pipe Failures
Project #4460, Practical Condition Assessment and Failure Probability Analysis of Small Diameter Ductile Iron Pipe
3. NDMA and Nitrosamines: Precursor Control, Treatment Practices, and Distribution System Operations to Achieve Regulatory Compliance: By 2016, provide resources to inform rulemakers and assist utility compliance with pending regulations by understanding the occurrence, precursor formation, treatment and control, and fate of nitrosamines in distribution systems.
Project #4452, Investigating Coagulant Aid Alternatives to PolyDADMAC Polymers
Project #4461, Nitrosamine Occurrence Survey
4. Carcinogenic VOCs Contaminant Group: Filling Critical Knowledge Gaps to Inform Meaningful Regulation: By 2015, delineate co‐occurrence, assess effectiveness of analytical methods, and provide treatment solutions for carcinogenic VOCs that are relevant to EPA rulemaking.
Project #4453, Survey of Existing VOC Treatment Installations
Project #4462, Evaluation of Henry’s Law Constant and Freundlich Adsorption Constant for VOCs
5. Water Utility Energy Efficiency and Integrated Water‐Energy Planning: Developing Tools and Strategies: By 2016, provide effective strategies to reduce water utility energy consumption and cost; develop strategies for multi‐sector, regional, integrated water‐energy planning; and provide sound approaches for energy generation by water utilities and reduced water consumption by energy utilities.
Project #4454, Update “Water and Wastewater Utilities: Characteristics and Energy Management Opportunities”
Project #4464, Tool to Evaluate Financial, Environmental, and Social Costs and Benefits of Renewable Energy Projects for Water Utilities
6. Water Utility Finances: Best Practices for Setting Rates, Financing Capital Improvements, and Achieving Public Support: By 2015, develop utility communication tools for governing boards and customers, critically evaluate rate‐setting strategies, tap financial success factors from outside the water industry, determine impacts of utility governance and ownership on financial sustainability, and develop decision support tools for infrastructure funding.
Project #4455, Rate Approval Process Communication Strategy and Toolkit for Legislative Bodies
7. CECs in Drinking Water: Improved Cost‐Benefit Analysis of Different Management Approaches: By 2016, develop robust approaches for managing CECs that consider the sources and variability of CECs, end uses of water, and the associated financial, environmental, and social costs/benefits.
Project #4456, Assessing Sources and Exposure to Priority Chemicals of Concern
8. Contaminant Risk Communication: Developing Core Messages and Engaging Critical Stakeholders: By 2014, develop core messages for water utilities to communicate the relative and often uncertain risk of contaminants to different audiences, and initiate dialogue among key stakeholder groups to foster agreement on related issues and solutions
Project #4457, Core Messages for Priority Contaminants of Emerging Concern
Project #4463, Broadening the National Dialogue on Contaminants of Emerging Concern and Public Health
9. Improving the Effectiveness of Water Demand Forecasts and Management: By 2016, increase the effectiveness of using short-term and long-term demand forecasting for financial (budgeting/rate design), water resources and infrastructure plans and distinguish the metrics between short- and long-term forecasts.
Project #4458, Water Demand Forecasting in Uncertain Times: Isolating the Effects of the Great Recession
10. Biofiltration: Defining Benefits, Overcoming Unintended Consequences, and Developing Utility Guidance: By 2017, determine biofiltration effectiveness at removing CECs and other contaminants, define benefits and communicate to key stakeholders, develop strategies to mitigate unintended consequences of biofiltration, and provide utility guidance on optimizing biofiltration.
Project #4459, Development of a Biofiltration Knowledge Base
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