AWWA ACE95214

Many papers and presentations have listed and described the individual federal and state regulatory programs that may apply to municipal water supply projects, often in encyclopedic detail. But none has yet provided municipal officials with a practical guide to organizing and implementing a successful water resource licensing process in today's regulatory climate. Based on first-hand experience with three municipal water supply reservoirs (the Ware Creek Reservoir for James City County, Virginia; The Two Forks Dam and Reservoir for Metropolitan Denver, Colorado; and the Hunting Run Reservoir for Spotsylvania County, Virginia) and one pipeline project (the proposed Lake Gaston Pipeline project for Virginia Beach, Virginia) as well as close-up observation of several other projects, it is the author's view that the typical approach of local governments to licensing water resource projects ought to change to reflect the new regulatory regime. The first section of this paper will provide a brief overview of the regulatory process for municipal officials interested in water resource development. To illustrate what can go right as well as wrong, the regulatory histories of the four water resource projects forming the experience base for this paper are presented. Drawing on these histories, Section II identifies and discusses the primary regulatory obstacles or "choke points" that can and do thwart the best-made plans of local officials. These obstacles include: definition of project purpose; identification of alternatives; thoroughness in evaluating alternatives and in identifying and assessing environmental effects. Section III suggests a modern strategy (assemble your team; know the entire playing field and the rules in advance; develop a plan; do not decide until you have sufficient information; communicate your openness; and build a record) for avoiding these "choke points," and for organizing and implementing a successful licensing effort to deal effectively and efficiently with the regulatory process.